title: Wheelchair control by elderly participants in a virtual environment with a brain-computer interface (BCI) and tactile stimulation.
abstract: Tactile event-related potential (ERP) are rarely used as input signal to control brain-computer-interfaces (BCI) due to their low accuracy and speed (information transfer rate, ITR). Age-related loss of tactile sensibility might further decrease their viability for the target population of BCI. In this study we investigated whether training improves tactile ERP-BCI performance within a virtual wheelchair navigation task. Elderly subjects participated in 5 sessions and tactors were placed at legs, abdomen and back. Mean accuracy and ITR increased from 88.43%/4.5bitsmin-1in the 1st to 92.56%/4.98bitsmin-1in the last session. The mean P300 amplitude increased from 5.46μV to 9.22μV. In an optional task participants achieved an accuracy of 95,56% and a mean ITR of 20,73bitsmin-1which is the highest ever achieved with tactile stimulation. Our sample of elderly people further contributed to the external validity of our results.
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Marcusstr 9-11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Herweg
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Marcusstr 9-11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors: Julian
authors: J
authors: Gutzeit
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Marcusstr 9-11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors: Sonja
authors: S
authors: Kleih
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Marcusstr 9-11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: andrea.kuebler@uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Kübler
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D062207:Brain-Computer Interfaces / Q000523:psychology*; D004777:Environment; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014910:Wheelchairs
keywords: Aging; BCI; ITR; Learning; Tactile; Wheelchair