Frontiers in Neuroscience (Nov 2010)
Brain Painting: first evaluation of a new brain-computer interface application with ALS patients and healthy volunteers.
Abstract
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) enable paralyzed patients to communicate; however, up to date, no creative expression was possible. The current study investigated the accuracy and user friendliness of P300-Brain Painting, a new BCI-application developed to paint pictures using brain activity only. Two different versions of the P300-Brain Painting application were tested: A coloured matrix tested by a group of ALS-patients (n = 3) and healthy participants (n = 10), and a black & white matrix tested by healthy participants (n = 10). The three ALS-patients achieved high accuracies; two of them reaching above 89% accuracy. In healthy subjects, a comparison between the P300-Brain Painting application (coloured matrix) and the P300-Spelling application revealed significantly lower accuracy and P300 amplitudes for the P300-Brain Painting application. This drop in accuracy and P300 amplitudes was not found when comparing the P300-Spelling application to an adapted, black & white matrix of the P300-Brain Painting application. By employing a black and white matrix, the accuracy of the P300-Brain Painting application was significantly enhanced and reached the accuracy of the P300-Spelling application. ALS patients greatly enjoyed P300-Brain Painting and were able to use the application with the same accuracy as healthy subjects. P300-Brain Painting enables paralyzed patients to express themselves creatively and to participate in the prolific society through exhibitions.
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