Reducing the Calibration Time in Somatosensory BCI by Using Tactile ERD

Objective: We propose a tactile-induced-oscillation approach to reduce the calibration time in somatosensory brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Methods: Based on the similarity between tactile induced event-related desynchronization (ERD) and imagined sensation induced ERD activation, we extensively evaluated BCI performance when using a conventional and a novel calibration strategy. In the conventional calibration, the tactile imagined data was used, while in the sensory calibration model sensory stimulation data was used. Subjects were required to sense the tactile stimulus when real tactile was applied to the left or right wrist and were required to perform imagined sensation tasks in the somatosensory BCI paradigm. Results: The sensory calibration led to a significantly better performance than the conventional calibration when tested on the same imagined sensation dataset (F-(1,F-19)=10.89, P=0.0038), with an average 5.1% improvement in accuracy. Moreover, the sensory calibration was 39.3% faster in reaching a performance level of above 70% accuracy. Conclusion: The proposed approach of using tactile ERD from the sensory cortex provides an effective way of reducing the calibration time in a somatosensory BCI system. Significance: The tactile stimulation would be specifically useful before BCI usage, avoiding excessive fatigue when the mental task is difficult to perform. The tactile ERD approach may find BCI applications for patients or users with preserved afferent pathways.