Paralysis and Brain-Computer Interface: Classical semantic conditioning for communication?
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1
University of Tübingen, Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, Germany
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2
University of Finance and Management, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Poland
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3
Ospedale San Camilo, IRCCS, Italy
The development of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) over the last three decades has focused on providing a muscle-independent channel for communication. While locked-in patients can control BCIs with high accuracy, until now patients in the completely locked-in state (CLIS) have not be able to use BCI systems for communication.
Based on Miller & Dworkin’s studies showing the impossibility of operant conditioning in curarized rats (Dworkin & Miller, 1986), we hypothesized that (i) the ability for operant learning gets lost in complete paralysis (ii)and classical conditioning may represent a more suitable learning paradigm for CLIS patients.
In this study we propose a differential semantic classical conditioning paradigm to enable basic YES/NO communication.
Four patients in the locked-in state (one female, ages 54, 44, 61, 37), diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) participated in an EEG study. Each patient completed 12 sessions. All patients had very limited available communication and relied on head/eye tracking and blinking for expression of their thoughts and needs. To condition YES/NO responses in the EEG, patients listened to true and false statements (conditioned stimuli, CS1 and CS2) which were paired with two different loud tones (unconditioned stimuli, US1 and US2). The patients were instructed to think YES or NO after each true or false (respectively) statement. After pairing CS and US in the first 100 acquisition trials, conditioning trials (CS+ US) were mixed with trials in which the statements were no longer paired with the US. In this phase the EEG patterns after the unpaired statements were used for offline classification of the conditioned response (YES/NO thinking in the EEG). Stepwise linear discriminant analysis (SWLDA) was employed for this classification.
Preliminary classification results indicate the feasibility of the proposed paradigm for basic communication in severely impaired patients which have very limited means of communication. Ongoing measurements with CLIS patients will test the usefulness of this paradigm for enabling communication in patients with no alternative communication channel.
Acknowledgements
Supported by Bernstein Focus Neurotechnologie Freiburg/Tübingen and Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) Tübingen.
References
Dworkin, B. R., & Miller, N. E. (1986). Failure to replicate visceral learning in the acute curarized rat preparation. Behav Neurosci, 100(3), 299-314.
Keywords:
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,
Brain-computer interface,
Classical Conditioning,
Communication,
EEG,
semantic conditioning
Conference:
BC11 : Computational Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Bernstein Conference & Neurex Annual Meeting 2011, Freiburg, Germany, 4 Oct - 6 Oct, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
neurotechnology and brain-machine interface (please use "neurotechnology and brain-machine interface" as keyword)
Citation:
Ruf
C,
Furdea
A,
Matuz
T,
De Massari
D,
Halder
S,
Van Der Heiden
L,
Kotchoubey
B and
Birbaumer
N
(2011). Paralysis and Brain-Computer Interface: Classical semantic conditioning for communication?.
Front. Comput. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
BC11 : Computational Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Bernstein Conference & Neurex Annual Meeting 2011.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2011.53.00171
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Received:
22 Aug 2011;
Published Online:
04 Oct 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Mrs. Carolin Ruf, University of Tübingen, Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, Tübingen, D-72074, Germany, ruf.caro@gmx.de