Effect of Short Term Meditation on Brain-Computer Interface Performance

Abstract

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device. BCI systems enable patients with severe neuromuscular disorders to use their brain signal to communicate with others. BCI users need to maintain stable mental states to achieve a higher accuracy rate, while distraction and frustration will degrade the performance. Research had found that long-term mindfulness meditation practice can help increase regulate the mental state, and thus enhance the efficacy of BCI performance. A previous study showed that a 12-week mindfulness meditation practice programme improved BCI performance. However, long-term meditation course require extensive time and financial commitment. Thus the current study examines whether a short-term 4-week mindfulness meditation practice programme will promote a similar improvement in BCI performance. Undergraduate students were recruited for the study. BCI performance test been carry out before and after the intervention period to compare the changes. Preliminary results showed that all meditation subjects had improved their accuracy in BCI performance test after the 4-week meditation practice. 

Analyzing and computing humans by means of the brain using Brain-Computer Interfaces - understanding the user – previous evidence, self-relevance and the user’s self-concept as potential superordinate human factors of relevance

“…A study by Jiang et al (2021) however found that participants with long-term training in meditation had more stable resting EEG mu rhythms, better resting state SMR predictors than nonmediators, achieved larger control signal contrasts in the motor imagery tasks and fewer subjects in the mediating group were BCI illiterates. For short-term and long-term effects of meditation training interventions on BCI performance testing of healthy users see Tan et al (2014) or Tan et al (2015). These latter results corroborate the finding that neurophysiological correlates obtained from the analysis of a user's mental state during rest (e.g., Blankertz et al, 2010) are reliable predictors of BCI performance.…”

Subject inefficiency phenomenon of motor imagery brain-computer interface: Influence factors and potential solutions

“…Short term meditation training is known to improve attention and self‐regulation [78], and experienced meditators show more distinguishable EEG patterns than untrained subjects during motor imagery tasks [79]. Thus, mindfulness meditation training may help increase the degree of concentration and improve signal‐to‐noise ratios and thereby facilitate MI‐BCI control performance Previous studies have confirmed that MI‐BCI control accuracy could be improved by both long term (12 weeks) and short term (4 weeks) mindfulness meditation practice [80, 81]. Based on the above results, we can infer that MI‐BCI inefficient subjects, particularly category Ⅰand Ⅱ subjects, may benefit from mindfulness meditation practice.…”

Effects of Long-Term Meditation Practices on Sensorimotor Rhythm-Based Brain-Computer Interface Learning

“…With growing evidence suggesting that meditation brings enhanced attention and brain rhythm control, it is reasonable to hypothesize that people with meditation experience would develop a better ability to control SMR-based BCI. Indeed, previous work has investigated the effect of meditation on SMR BCI cursor control ( Cassady et al, 2014 ; Tan et al, 2014 , 2015 ; Kober et al, 2017 ; Stieger et al, 2020 ) or just generating ERD/ERS without controlling a BCI system ( Kerr et al, 2011a , b , 2013 ; Rimbert et al, 2019 ). Similar to what Tang et al (2015) summarized for the neuroscience aspect of meditation studies, efforts to study the meditation effect on SMR BCI could be divided into two categories, longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies:…”

“…Previous longitudinal studies separated meditation-naïve subjects into a meditation group and a control group, with the meditation group receiving meditation training and the control group receive either active control tasks or no specific task ( Mahmoudi and Erfanian, 2006 ; Tan et al, 2014 , 2015 ; Botrel and Kübler, 2019 ; Stieger et al, 2020 ). After that, BCI performance and/or neurophysiological difference between the two groups was assessed.…”

“…After that, BCI performance and/or neurophysiological difference between the two groups was assessed. For example, a series of studies by Tan et al (2014 , 2015) and Ramli et al (2019) described the effect of 4 weeks mindfulness meditation on SMR BCI performance, that mindfulness meditation improved BCI performance and was correlated with activation in the frontal–parietal region in functional magnetic resonance imaging during motor imagery. In Mahmoudi and Erfanian (2006) , the mental practice of MI and concentration procedures improved the offline classification of MI in multiple EEG electrodes, such as C3 in the primary motor cortex area and F3 in the frontal area.…”