Communications of the ACM
New Tasks Become as Simple as Waving a Hand With Brain-Computer Interfaces
This image shows changes in the brain for all patients participating in the study using a brain-computer interface. Changes in activity were distributed widely throughout the brain.
Credit: Jeremiah Wander/University of Washington
University of Washington (UW) researchers have shown that the human brain approaches brain-computer interfaces in a way that is similar to the execution of simple motor skills, suggesting that people could learn to control robotic or prosthetic limbs without ongoing concentration on the task.
"There’s a lot of engagement of the brain’s cognitive resources at the very beginning, but as you get better at the task, those resources aren’t needed anymore and the brain is freed up," says UW professor Rajesh Rao, who conducted the study along with his colleagues.
The study involved seven people with severe epilepsy who were hospitalized for a monitoring procedure to identify the point of origin for seizures, which required a thin sheet of electrodes to be located directly on top of the brain. Using only their thoughts, the patients were asked to move a mouse cursor on a computer screen, with the electrodes capturing brain signals and sending them to a computer for analysis. The computer identified the patient's intended movements within 40 milliseconds and updated the cursor's movement.
Initially, significant brain activity was centered in the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with learning new skills, but frontal brain activity lessened over time and the brain signals took the form of those seen during more automatic actions.
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