Riccio Angela, Schettini Francesca, Simione Luca, Pizzimenti Alessia, Inghilleri Maurizio, Olivetti-Belardinelli Marta, Mattia Donatella, Cincotti Febo
Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Laboratory, NeiLab, Fondazione Santa Lucia (IRCCS), Rome, Italy.
Servizio Ausilioteca per Riabilitazione Assistita con Tecnologia (SARA-t), Fondazione Santa Lucia (IRCCS), Rome, Italy.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 May 28;12:165. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00165. eCollection 2018.
Our objective was to investigate the capacity to control a P3-based brain-computer interface (BCI) device for communication and its related (temporal) attention processing in a sample of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with respect to healthy subjects. The ultimate goal was to corroborate the role of cognitive mechanisms in event-related potential (ERP)-based BCI control in ALS patients. Furthermore, the possible differences in such attentional mechanisms between the two groups were investigated in order to unveil possible alterations associated with the ALS condition. Thirteen ALS patients and 13 healthy volunteers matched for age and years of education underwent a P3-speller BCI task and a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The RSVP task was performed by participants in order to screen their temporal pattern of attentional resource allocation, namely: (i) the temporal attentional filtering capacity (scored as T1%); and (ii) the capability to adequately update the attentive filter in the temporal dynamics of the attentional selection (scored as T2%). For the P3-speller BCI task, the online accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) were obtained. Centroid Latency and Mean Amplitude of N200 and P300 were also obtained. No significant differences emerged between ALS patients and Controls with regards to online accuracy ( = 0.13). Differently, the performance in controlling the P3-speller expressed as ITR values (calculated offline) were compromised in ALS patients ( < 0.05), with a delay in the latency of P3 when processing BCI stimuli as compared with Control group ( < 0.01). Furthermore, the temporal aspect of attentional filtering which was related to BCI control ( = 0.51; < 0.05) and to the P3 wave amplitude ( = 0.63; < 0.05) was also altered in ALS patients ( = 0.01). These findings ground the knowledge required to develop sensible classes of BCI specifically designed by taking into account the influence of the cognitive characteristics of the possible candidates in need of a BCI system for communication.
我们的目标是在肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）患者样本中，研究其控制基于P3的脑机接口（BCI）设备进行通信的能力及其相关的（时间）注意力处理，与健康受试者进行对比。最终目标是证实认知机制在基于事件相关电位（ERP）的BCI控制在ALS患者中的作用。此外，研究了两组之间这种注意力机制的可能差异，以揭示与ALS病情相关的可能改变。13名ALS患者和13名年龄及受教育年限匹配的健康志愿者接受了P3拼写器BCI任务和快速序列视觉呈现（RSVP）任务。参与者执行RSVP任务以筛选其注意力资源分配的时间模式，即：（i）时间注意力过滤能力（记为T1%）；以及（ii）在注意力选择的时间动态中充分更新注意力过滤器的能力（记为T2%）。对于P3拼写器BCI任务，获得了在线准确率和信息传输率（ITR）。还获得了N200和P300的质心潜伏期和平均波幅。在在线准确率方面，ALS患者和对照组之间没有显著差异（P = 0.13）。不同的是，以ITR值（离线计算）表示的控制P3拼写器的性能在ALS患者中受到损害（P < 0.05），与对照组相比，在处理BCI刺激时P3潜伏期延迟（P < 0.01）。此外，与BCI控制相关的注意力过滤的时间方面（P = 0.51；P < 0.05）以及与P3波幅相关的时间方面（P = 0.63；P < 0.05）在ALS患者中也发生了改变（P = 0.01）。这些发现为开发合理的BCI类别奠定了知识基础，这些BCI类别是通过考虑可能需要BCI系统进行通信的候选者的认知特征的影响而专门设计的。
