A Review Paper on Brain Computer Interface
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Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings A Review Paper on Brain Computer Interface Sonam1, Yashpal Singh2 1,2Department of Computer Science &Engineering, Ganga Institute of Technology and Management, Kablana, Jhajjar, Haryana, India Abstract — A brain–computer interface (BCI) is a proficient Berger's first recording device was very rudimentary. result in the research field of human-computer synergy, He inserted silver wires under the scalps of his patients. where direct articulation between brain and an external These were later replaced by silver foils attached to the device occurs resulting in augmenting, assisting and repairing patients' head by rubber bandages. Berger connected these human cognitive. In our overview study past and recent sensors to a Lippmann capillary electrometer, with research works on brain computer interface are sincerely explored as well as their productivity in the field of BCI and disappointing results. More sophisticated measuring critical discussions about the proposed research methods for devices, such as the Siemens double-coil recording future developments are presented in this seminar. Brain– galvanometer, which displayed electric voltages as small as computer interfaces (BCIs) enable users to control devices one ten thousandth of a volt, led to success. with electroencephalographic (EEG) activity from the scalp or with single-neuron activity from within the brain. Berger analyzed the interrelation of alternations in his EEG wave diagrams with brain diseases. EEGs permitted Keywords— Component; formatting; style; styling; insert completely new possibilities for the research of human (key words) brain activities Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the I. INTRODUCTION University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from the National Science Foundation, followed by For generations, humans have fantasized about the a contract from DARPA. The papers published after this ability to communicate and interact with machines through research also mark the first appearance of the expression thought alone or to create devices that can peer into brain–computer interface in scientific literature. person’s mind and thoughts. These ideas have captured the imagination of humankind in the form of ancient myths and The field of BCI research and development has since modern science fiction stories. However, it is only recently focused primarily on neuroprosthetics applications that aim that advances in cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement. Thanks technologies have started to provide us with the ability to to the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, signals interface directly with the human brain. This ability is from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled made possible through the use of sensors that can monitor by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. some of the physical processes that occur within the brain Following years of animal experimentation, the first that correspond with certain forms of thought. neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-1990s. The ability to control a computer using only the power of the mind is closer than one might think. Brain-computer III. ANIMAL BCI RESEARCH interfaces, where computers can read and interpret signals Several laboratories have managed to record signals directly from the brain, have already achieved clinical from monkey and rat cerebral cortexes in order to operate success in allowing quadriplegics, those suffering “locked- BCIs to carry out movement. Monkeys have navigated in syndrome” or people who have had a stroke to move computer cursors on screen and commanded robotic arms their own wheelchairs or even drink coffee from a cup by to perform simple tasks simply by thinking about the task controlling the action of a robotic arm with their brain and without any motor output. Other research on cats has waves as in fig 1. In addition, direct brain implants have decoded visual signals. helped restore partial vision to people who have lost their sight. II. HISTORY The history of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) starts with Hans Berger's discovery of the electrical activity of the human brain and the development of electroencephalography (EEG). In 1924 Berger was the first to record human brain activity by means of EEG. Berger was able to identify oscillatory activity in the brain by analyzing EEG traces. One wave he identified was the alpha wave (8–13 Hz), also known as Berger's wave. Fig. 1. Rats implemented with BCIs in Theodore Berger’s experiments Volume 3, Issue 10 Published by, www.ijert.org 1 Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings A. Early Work By 2000, the group succeeded in building a BCI that reproduced owl monkey movements while the monkey Studies that developed algorithms to reconstruct operated a joystick or reached for food. The BCI operated movements from motor cortex neurons, which control in real time and could also control a separate robot movement, date back to the 1970s. Work by groups led by remotely over Internet protocol. But the monkeys could not Schmidt, Fetz and Baker in the 1970s established that see the arm moving and did not receive any feedback, a so- monkeys could quickly learn to voluntarily control the called open-loop BCI. firing rate of individual neurons in the primary motor cortex after closed-loop operant conditioning, a training method using punishment and rewards. In the 1980s, Apostolos Georgopoulos at Johns Hopkins University found a mathematical relationship between the electrical responses of single motor-cortex neurons in rhesus macaque monkeys and the direction that monkeys moved their arms (based on a cosine function). He also found that dispersed groups of neurons in different areas of the brain collectively controlled motor commands but was only able to record the firings of neurons in one area at a time because of technical limitations imposed by his equipment. There has been rapid development in BCIs since the Fig. 2. BCI developed by Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues. mid-1990s. Several groups have been able to capture complex brain motor centre signals using recordings from Later experiments by Nicolelis using rhesus neural ensembles (groups of neurons) and use these to monkeys, succeeded in closing the feedback loop and control external devices, including research groups led by reproduced monkey reaching and grasping movements in a Richard Andersen, John Donoghue, Phillip Kennedy, robot arm. With their deeply cleft and furrowed brains, Miguel Nicolelis, and Andrew Schwartz. rhesus monkeys are considered to be better models for human neurophysiology than owl monkeys. The monkeys B. Prominent Research Successes were trained to reach and grasp objects on a computer Phillip Kennedy and colleagues built the first screen by manipulating a joystick while corresponding intracortical brain-computer interface by implanting movements by a robot arm were hidden. The monkeys neurotrophic-cone electrodes into monkeys. were later shown the robot directly and learned to control it by viewing its movements. The BCI used velocity In 1999, researchers led by Garrett Stanley at Harvard predictions to control reaching movements and University decoded neuronal firings to reproduce images simultaneously predicted hand gripping force. seen by cats. The team used an array of electrodes embedded in the thalamus (which integrates all of the Other labs that develop BCIs and algorithms that brain’s sensory input) of sharp-eyed cats. Researchers decode neuron signals include John Donoghue from Brown targeted 177 brain cells in the thalamus lateral geniculate University, Andrew Schwartz from the University of nucleus area, which decodes signals from the retina. The Pittsburgh and Richard Andersen from Caltech. These cats were shown eight short movies, and their neuron researchers were able to produce working BCIs even firings were recorded. Using mathematical filters, the though they recorded signals from far fewer neurons than researchers decoded the signals to generate movies of what Nicolelis (15–30 neurons versus 50–200 neurons). the cats saw and were able to reconstruct recognisable Donoghue's group reported training rhesus scenes and moving objects. monkeys to use a BCI to track visual targets on a computer Miguel Nicolelis has been a prominent proponent of screen with or without assistance of a joystick (closed-loop using multiple electrodes spread over a greater area of the BCI).Schwartz's group created a BCI for three-dimensional brain to obtain neuronal signals to drive a BCI. Such neural tracking in virtual reality and also reproduced BCI control ensembles are said to reduce the variability in output in a robotic arm. The group created headlines when they produced by single electrodes, which could make it demonstrated that a monkey could feed itself pieces of difficult to operate a BCI. zucchini using a robotic arm powered by the animal's own brain signals. After conducting initial studies in rats during the 1990s, Nicolelis and his colleagues developed BCIs that Andersen's group used recordings of decoded brain activity in owl monkeys and used the premovement activity from the posterior parietal cortex in devices to reproduce monkey movements in robotic arms. their BCI, including signals created when experimental