title: Challenges of implementing a personalized mental task near-infrared spectroscopy brain-computer interface for a non-verbal young adult with motor impairments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Near-infrared spectroscopy brain-computer interfaces (NIRS-BCIs) have been proposed as potential motor-free communication pathways. This paper documents the challenges of implementing an NIRS-BCI with a non-verbal, severely and congenitally impaired, but cognitively intact young adult.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 5-session personalized mental task NIRS-BCI training paradigm was invoked, whereby participant-specific mental tasks were selected either by the researcher or by the user, on the basis of prior performance or user preference.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although the personalized mental task selection and training framework had been previously demonstrated with able-bodied participants, the participant was not able to exceed chance-level accuracies. Challenges to the acquisition of BCI control may have included disinclination to BCI training, structural or functional brain atypicalities, heightened emotional arousal and confounding haemodynamic patterns associated with novelty and reward processing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, we stress the necessity for further clinical NIRS-BCI research involving non-verbal individuals with severe motor impairments.
authors.affiliation: a Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital , Toronto , Ontario , Canada and.|b Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weyand
authors.affiliation: a Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital , Toronto , Ontario , Canada and.|b Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chau
mesh_terms: D062207:Brain-Computer Interfaces; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D000068079:Motor Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D000066530:Neurological Rehabilitation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Brain–computer interface; client case study; near-infrared spectroscopy; personalized mental tasks