title: Effects of text generation on P300 brain-computer interface performance.
abstract: Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are intended to provide independent communication for those with the most severe physical impairments. However, development and testing of BCIs is typically conducted with copy-spelling of provided text, which models only a small portion of a functional communication task. This study was designed to determine how BCI performance is affected by novel text generation. We used a within-subject single-session study design in which subjects used a BCI to perform copy-spelling of provided text and to generate self-composed text to describe a picture. Additional off-line analysis was performed to identify changes in the event-related potentials that the BCI detects and to examine the effects of training the BCI classifier on task-specific data. Accuracy was reduced during the picture description task; (t(8)=2.59p=0.0321). Creating the classifier using self-generated text data significantly improved accuracy on these data; (t(7)=-2.68,p=0.0317), but did not bring performance up to the level achieved during copy-spelling. Thus, this study shows that the task for which the BCI is used makes a difference in BCI accuracy. Task-specific BCI classifiers are a first step to counteract this effect, but additional study is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; Department Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Jane E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Huggins
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Ramses E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Alcaide-Aguirre
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Katya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hill
keywords: BCI; Brain-computer Interface; Communication; Latency jitter; Mental Workload; Novel text generation; P300