title: Effects of resting heart rate variability on performance in the P300 brain-computer interface.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Brain computer interfaces (BCI) can serve as a communication system for people with severe impairment in speech and motor function due to neurodegenerative disease or injury. Reasons for inter-individual differences in capability of BCI usage are not yet fully understood. Paradigms making use of the P300 event-related potential are widely used. Success in a P300 based BCI requires the capability to focus attention and inhibit interference by distracting irrelevant stimuli. Such inhibitory control has been closely linked to peripheral physiological parameters, such as heart rate variability (HRV). The present study investigated the association between resting HRV and performance in the P300-BCI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Heart rate was recorded from 34 healthy participants under resting conditions, and subsequently a P300-BCI task was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Frequency domain measures of HRV were significantly associated with BCI-performance, in that higher vagal activation was related to better BCI-performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Resting HRV accounted for almost 26% of the variance of BCI performance and may, therefore, serve as a predictor for the capacity to control a P300 oddball based BCI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to demonstrate resting vagal-cardiac activation to predict capability of P300-BCI usage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology I, University of Würzburg, Marcustrasse 9-11, Würzburg, Germany. tobias.kaufmann@uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vögele
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sütterlin
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lukito
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kübler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013997:Time Factors; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult