An Implicit Brain Computer Interface Supported by Gaze Monitoring for Virtual Therapy

Advanced Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) paradigms aim to solve some problems as BCI illiteracy and unfamiliarity of the subjects to be able to control their elicited motor imagery (MI) successfully, hence improving training time and performance of BCI systems. This work evaluates the effect and performance of an Implicit BCI supported by the Gaze Monitoring (IBCI-GM) paradigm for virtual rehabilitation therapy of patients suffering from partial or total paralysis of their upper limbs; this paradigm also was compared with alternative forms of advanced BCI methods such as Virtual Reality-based BCI (VR-BCI) with a head-mounted display (HMD) and a computer screen (CS). Eight subjects participated in the experiments; four subjects tested the VR-BCI with a CS, and the rest of them tested both BCI advanced methods (IBCI-GM and VR-BCI with an HMD). The subjects were asked to control a virtual arm through MI of flexion and extension movements. The VR-BCI HMD was the approached best method; however, IBCI-GM had significant results and was more practical for users, but it depends on the ability to perform eye movements to be applied by patients. Therefore, these methods should be tested with more subjects to have definitive results