TY - JOUR
T1 - Decoding motor signals from the pediatric cortex
T2 - Implications for brain-computer interfaces in children
AU - Breshears, Jonathan D.
AU - Gaona, Charles M.
AU - Roland, Jarod L.
AU - Sharma, Mohit
AU - Anderson, Nicholas R.
AU - Bundy, David T.
AU - Freudenburg, Zachary V.
AU - Smyth, Matthew D.
AU - Zempel, John
AU - Limbrick, David D.
AU - Smart, William D.
AU - Leuthardt, Eric C.
PY - 2011/7
Y1 - 2011/7
N2 - OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the decodable nature of pediatric brain signals for the purpose of neuroprosthetic control. We hypothesized that children would achieve levels of brain-derived computer control comparable to performance previously reported for adults. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Six pediatric patients with intractable epilepsy who were invasively monitored underwent screening for electrocortical control signals associated with specific motor or phoneme articulation tasks. Subsequently, patients received visual feedback as they used these associated electrocortical signals to direct one dimensional cursor movement to a target on a screen. RESULTS: All patients achieved accuracies between 70% and 99% within 9 minutes of training using the same screened motor and articulation tasks. Two subjects went on to achieve maximum accuracies of 73% and 100% using imagined actions alone. Average mean and maximum performance for the 6 pediatric patients was comparable to that of 5 adults. The mean accuracy of the pediatric group was 81% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 71.5-90.5) over a mean training time of 11.6 minutes, whereas the adult group had a mean accuracy of 72% (95% CI: 61.2-84.3) over a mean training time of 12.5 minutes. Maximum performance was also similar between the pediatric and adult groups (89.6% [95% CI: 83-96.3] and 88.5% [95% CI: 77.1-99.8], respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Similarly to adult brain signals, pediatric brain signals can be decoded and used for BCI operation. Therefore, BCI systems developed for adults likely hold similar promise for children with motor disabilities.
AB - OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the decodable nature of pediatric brain signals for the purpose of neuroprosthetic control. We hypothesized that children would achieve levels of brain-derived computer control comparable to performance previously reported for adults. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Six pediatric patients with intractable epilepsy who were invasively monitored underwent screening for electrocortical control signals associated with specific motor or phoneme articulation tasks. Subsequently, patients received visual feedback as they used these associated electrocortical signals to direct one dimensional cursor movement to a target on a screen. RESULTS: All patients achieved accuracies between 70% and 99% within 9 minutes of training using the same screened motor and articulation tasks. Two subjects went on to achieve maximum accuracies of 73% and 100% using imagined actions alone. Average mean and maximum performance for the 6 pediatric patients was comparable to that of 5 adults. The mean accuracy of the pediatric group was 81% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 71.5-90.5) over a mean training time of 11.6 minutes, whereas the adult group had a mean accuracy of 72% (95% CI: 61.2-84.3) over a mean training time of 12.5 minutes. Maximum performance was also similar between the pediatric and adult groups (89.6% [95% CI: 83-96.3] and 88.5% [95% CI: 77.1-99.8], respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Similarly to adult brain signals, pediatric brain signals can be decoded and used for BCI operation. Therefore, BCI systems developed for adults likely hold similar promise for children with motor disabilities.
KW - Brain-computer interface
KW - Cerebral palsy
KW - Electrocorticography
KW - Motor disability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79959961071&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1542/peds.2010-1519
DO - 10.1542/peds.2010-1519
M3 - Article
C2 - 21690116
AN - SCOPUS:79959961071
SN - 0031-4005
VL - 128
SP - e160-e168
JO - Pediatrics
JF - Pediatrics
IS - 1
ER -