1. BCI Review paper Sections 8 & 9

2. BCI Target Populations
CLIS – completely locked in – no movement ability
LIS – almost completely paralyzed but able to do some movements (e.g. eye movements, eye blinks, facial muscle twitches). This is the main target population for communication BCIs
Able bodied/ healthy people
CLIS patients have been unable to control a BCI
Within LIS patients ability to control BCI not related to their physical impairment level

4. Hybrid BCIs
Use brain activity combined with other assistive technology (e.g. eye trackers)
Or combination of different BCIs

5. Challenges in BCIs Low information transfer rate
High error rate (related to the first point)
BCIs require assistants to apply electrodes/caps
How to turn on the system?
High cognitive load to use the systems

6. Communication
Slow cortical potentials to control a cursor to select letters
Eyeblinks or motor imagery to recursively select sets of characters
P300 BCIs

7. P300 BCIs A two-stage selection strategy
Can also have checkerboard flashing patterns

8. The most severely paralyzed people will not be able to foveate stimuli, so systems that flash individual letters centrally or use auditory or tactile P300 BCIs are being developed
Web browsers can also be controlled with SCP, P300, and SSVEP systems

9. Motor Restoration
FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) can be used to activate intact muscles
FES can be controlled by BCI (often by motor imagery)
Neuroprosthetics can also be used when there is insufficient muscle control
MEG can be used in stroke rehab to pair motor imagery with movement of a mechanical orthosis

10. Environmental Control
Control lights, TV remote control, door opening, telephone

11. Locomotion
Important for those who have other methods of communication/environmental control)
Important to give more autonomy/independence
Simplify the user controls and have the wheelchair/device take care of obstacle avoidance etc.
P300 and SSVEP systems used

12. Entertainment
Can be used for able-bodied people to increase interaction modalities
Can also be used to monitor user engagement/interest etc.
Cheaper headsets being developed for gaming apps (with APIs or software development tools)

13. Other Application Areas
Neurofeedback – feedback info on brain activity to help users better control various aspects of the activity (used for epilepsy, ADD, schizophrenia, depression, alcohol dependence, autism, paedophilia,…)
Neuromarketing – look at brain responses to advertisements/products

14. Terms and concepts you should know
EEG vs MEG/fMRI/NIRS/invasive methods
Exogenous vs Endogenous
Synchronous vs Asynchronous
Temporal Filtering basics
Basic features of ICA, CSP
Idea of what types of signals different BCIs are looking for