NiMi-Study

LEARN HOW TO CONTROL BRAIN COMPUTER
INTERFACE!

What is the aim?

Mental imagery tasks are used in many domains, for instance, in professional athletics, for new gaming devices, and in motor recovery. Mental imagery tasks are also often used in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). BCIs are systems that measure brain activity and convert it into machine-readable output. Such technologies could, for example, be used to let paralyzed patients control a wheelchair just with their mental imagery. Mental imagery tasks are performed in once’ mind without any overt movements. One example is imagining a hand movement without actually moving the hand. In the context of BCI, such mental tasks can be detected by the BCI and then used as a control signal. To illustrate, a paralyzed patient could turn his wheelchair towards the right by thinking of a hand movement or towards the left by thinking of a foot movement. Importantly, the performance success might also depend on how well the user understands and performs the task. Unfortunately, currently little is known on how to instruct mental imagery tasks best. For this reason, we assess two different instruction procedures.

What will you do?

You will look at two different instruction types, a written and a video instruction, for two mental imagery tasks. You will be shown one motor imagery task and one cognitive mental task that you will perform.

In the first phase, you will follow one kind of instruction method (video or written) for either one motor imagery task or one cognitive mental task, whereas in the second part, you will follow the contrary instruction method. Therefore, you will look at two instructions in total. After each instruction trial, you will fill out a questionnaire.