Effects of Mental Load and Fatigue on Steady-State Evoked Potential Based Brain Computer Interface Tasks: A Comparison of Periodic Flickering and Motion-Reversal Based Visual Attention.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27658216.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0163426 and PMC identifier 5033480.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) based paradigm is a conventional BCI method with the advantages of high information transfer rate, high tolerance to artifacts and the robust performance across users. But the occurrence of mental load and fatigue when users stare at flickering stimuli is a critical problem in implementation of SSVEP-based BCIs. Based on electroencephalography (EEG) power indices α, θ, θ + α, ratio index θ/α and response properties of amplitude and SNR, this study quantitatively evaluated the mental load and fatigue in both of conventional flickering and the novel motion-reversal visual attention tasks. Results over nine subjects revealed significant mental load alleviation in motion-reversal task rather than flickering task. The interaction between factors of "stimulation type" and "fatigue level" also illustrated the motion-reversal stimulation as a superior anti-fatigue solution for long-term BCI operation. Taken together, our work provided an objective method favorable for the design of more practically applicable steady-state evoked potential based BCIs.