Individuals with severe physical impairments have a reduced ability to communicate through movement and speech. We investigated transcranial Doppler ultrasound as a potential measurement modality for a novel brain-computer interface. It was hypothesized that cognitive activity would result in detectable changes in cerebral blood flow velocity within the middle cerebral arteries. Nine able-bodied participants alternated between rest and two different mental activities - silent word generation and mental rotation. Two analyses were performed to assess the feasibility and practicality of a TCD-based brain-computer interface. Both mental activities were independently differentiated from rest with high accuracy. Intuitive time-domain features were sufficient for classification. Data transmission rate was quadrupled by differentiating all three classes simultaneously using shorter state durations. Transcranial Doppler ultrasound can be used to automatically detect cognitive activity and may be useful as the basis of a brain-computer interface.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/31352 |
| Date | 15 December 2011 |
| Creators | Myrden, Andrew |
| Contributors | Chau, Tom |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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