title: An auditory oddball brain-computer interface for binary choices.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide non-muscular communication for individuals diagnosed with late-stage motoneuron disease (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)). In the final stages of the disease, a BCI cannot rely on the visual modality. This study examined a method to achieve high accuracies using auditory stimuli only.
  
  
  METHODS
  We propose an auditory BCI based on a three-stimulus paradigm. This paradigm is similar to the standard oddball but includes an additional target (i.e. two target stimuli, one frequent stimulus). Three versions of the task were evaluated in which the target stimuli differed in loudness, pitch or direction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty healthy participants achieved an average information transfer rate (ITR) of up to 2.46 bits/min and accuracies of 78.5%. Most subjects (14 of 20) achieved their best performance with targets differing in pitch.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With this study, the viability of the paradigm was shown for healthy participants and will next be evaluated with individuals diagnosed with ALS or locked-in syndrome (LIS) after stroke.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The here presented BCI offers communication with binary choices (yes/no) independent of vision. As it requires only little time per selection, it may constitute a reliable means of communication for patients who lost all motor function and have a short attention span.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Gartenstr. 29, 72074 Tübingen, Germany. halder@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Halder
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rea
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Andreoni
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nijboer
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kleih
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birbaumer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kübler
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult