The application of vibration tactile stimulation in hand motor imagery paradigm: a pilot study

Abstract

Background The motor imagery (MI) paradigm is widely used in active brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), but its effectiveness is hindered by accuracy limitations and individual variability. Tactile stimulation has been proposed as a potential method to enhance MI performance; however, integrating such stimulation in real-time MI tasks remains challenging due to the spontaneous nature of MI.Objective This study aimed to investigate the real-time effects of bilateral vibration tactile stimulation on the performance of left and right hand MI paradigms using a controlled trial with healthy subjects.Methods Fourteen healthy subjects participated in MI tasks under two conditions: without vibration stimulation and with bilateral vibration stimulation. Brain activation patterns and decoding accuracy of MI-BCI were compared and analyzed between these two conditions.Results The experimental findings demonstrated that vibration stimulation effectively activated the sensorimotor cortex and enhanced the event-related desynchronization (ERD) phenomenon induced by MI. Although bilateral vibration stimulation did not directly improve decoding accuracy of left and right hand MI, it notably peaked approximately 2 seconds post-stimulation, resulting in an approximate 7% increase in accuracy compared to baseline MI.Conclusion This study systematically explored the phased impact of continuous vibration stimulation on MI performance. The findings discuss potential optimization strategies for integrating tactile feedback into MI-based BCIs, thus laying groundwork for future research in tactile-enhanced MI brain-controlled systems.

Keywords

• Brain-computer interface
• motor imagery
• vibration
• tactile stimulation
• hybrid BCI