A Review of Error-Related Potential-Based Brain–Computer Interfaces for Motor Impaired People

Abstract

Regaining the lost functionality of limbs is the top priority for people with motor skills impairment as it directly affects their ability to execute activities of daily living and hence, worsens their quality of life. In the last two decades, a great deal of research has focused on error-related potential (ErrP) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Many applications have been developed to assist motor-impaired people in their rehabilitation and among these are robots, spellers, gesture recognition systems, and brain-controlled wheelchairs. In this paper, we present a review of various ErrP based BCI that can potentially aid motor-disabled people in their rehabilitation and execution of their daily activities. First, we describe the ErrP phenomenon and its characteristics followed by a comprehensive application-driven discussion on ErrP based rehabilitation and assistive strategies for motor-impaired people, including studies conducted since the inception of ErrP to the current state-of-the-art applications. Lastly, we discuss the potential issues and challenges being faced by current state-of-the-art applications as well as important future pathways and research directions that might be adopted for advanced ErrP-BCIs used in clinical settings.

Keywords

• Assistive devices
• brain-computer interface
• electroencephalography
• error-related potential
• rehabilitation devices
• stroke rehabilitation