title: Enhancement of left-right sensorimotor EEG differences during feedback-regulated motor imagery.
abstract: EEG feedback studies demonstrate that human subjects can learn to regulate electrocortical activity over the sensorimotor cortex. Such self-induced EEG changes could serve as control signals for a Brain Computer Interface. The experimental task of the current study was to imagine either right-hand or left-hand movement depending on a visual cue stimulus on a computer monitor. The performance of this imagination task was controlled on-line by means of a feedback bar that represented the current EEG pattern. EEG signals recorded from left and right central recording sites were used for on-line classification. For the estimation of EEG parameters, an adaptive autoregressive model was applied, and a linear discriminant classifier was used to discriminate between EEG patterns associated with left and right motor imagery. Four trained subjects reached 85% to 95% classification accuracy in the course of the experimental sessions. To investigate the impact of continuous feedback presentation, time courses of band power changes were computed for subject-specific frequency bands. The EEG data revealed a significant event-related desynchronization over the contralateral central area in all subjects. Two subjects simultaneously displayed synchronization of EEG activity (event-related synchronization) over the ipsilateral side. During feedback presentation the event-related desynchronization/event-related synchronization patterns showed increased hemispheric asymmetry compared to initial control sessions without feedback.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute for Medical Informatics and Neuroinformatics and Department of Medical Informatics, University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neuper
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schlögl
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pfurtscheller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors