BCI2000: SOFTWARE FOR BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE RESEARCH

描述（由申请人提供）：来自大脑的信号可以为患有严重神经肌肉疾病（如肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）、脑干中风、脑瘫和脊髓损伤）的人提供一种新的通信渠道-脑机接口（BCI）。BCI技术可以让完全瘫痪的人，或“锁定”，表达愿望的照顾者，使用文字处理程序，访问互联网，甚至操作神经假体。到目前为止，BCI研究已经证明，使用不同的大脑信号，不同的信号分析和不同的操作格式的各种不同方法可以将人的命令传达给计算机。未来的进展，从这个示范阶段移动到实际应用的长期价值的人与运动障碍，需要系统的比较和整合这些不同的方法。灵活的通用BCI系统可以极大地促进这一过程，该系统可用于实现任何BCI设计。在过去的五年里，我们开发了这样一个系统，称为BCI 2000，我们已经向世界各地的63个实验室提供了它。他们将其用于各种各样的研究。该应用程序的目标是进一步开发和维护BCI 2000，以确保其持续和不断增长的效用，以迅速增长的BCI研究领域。我们的实验室已经在BCI研究的最前沿超过15年。我们发起并领导了BCI 2000的跨学科和跨国开发。这项建议的目的是：（1）使BCI 2000更能适应其他用户的需要和其他技术，以确保随着这些需要和技术的变化而继续使用;（2）通过在BCI 2000中纳入对其他硬件、软件和操作系统的支持，利用这种增加的灵活性;以及（3）开发和维护完整的BCI 2000文档和用户支持，以便更大的用户群能够有效地使用BCI 2000。我们期望这些目标的实现和由此产生的技术向其他研究小组的传播将大大促进BCI研究，并加速其从实验室演示到实现BCI应用的持续过渡，对运动障碍者具有明确的实用价值。通俗语言描述：最近的许多研究表明，严重瘫痪的人可以单独使用大脑信号将他们的意图传达给计算机。使这成为可能的脑机接口（BCI）技术在广泛应用之前需要进一步发展。该项目将通过改进和维护通用BCI软件，并继续向世界各地的BCI研究小组提供该软件，极大地促进这一发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Signals from the brain can provide a new communication channel - a brain-computer interface (BCI) - for people with severe neuromuscular disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brainstem stroke, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injury. BCI technology can allow people who are completely paralyzed, or "locked in," to express wishes to caregivers, use word processing programs, access the Internet, or even operate neuroprostheses. Up to now, BCI research has demonstrated that a variety of different methods using different brain signals, different signal analyses, and different operating formats can convey a person's commands to a computer. Future progress that moves from this demonstration stage to practical applications of long-term value to people with motor disabilities requires systematic comparison and integration of these different methods. This process can be greatly facilitated by a flexible general-purpose BCI system that can be used to implement any BCI design. Over the past five years, we have developed such a system, called BCI2000, and we have provided it to 63 laboratories around the world. They are using it for a wide variety of studies. The goal of this application is the further development and maintenance of BCI2000 to ensure its continuing and growing utility to the rapidly growing field of BCI research. Our laboratory has been in the forefront of BCI research for over 15 years. We initiated and are leading the interdisciplinary and multinational development of BCI2000. The aims of this proposal are: (1) to make BCI2000 more adaptable to other users' needs and other technologies to ensure its continuing utility as those needs and technologies change; (2) to exploit this increased flexibility by incorporating into BCI2000 support for other hardware, software, and operating systems; and (3) to develop and maintain complete BCI2000 documentation and user support to allow efficient use of BCI2000 by a larger user base. We expect that achievement of these aims and dissemination of the resulting technology to other research groups will greatly facilitate BCI research and accelerate its ongoing transition from laboratory demonstrations to realization of BCI applications with clear practical value for people with motor disabilities. LAY LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION: Many recent studies have shown that people who are severely paralyzed can use brain signals alone to communicate their intent to a computer. The brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that makes this possible requires further development before it can be widely used. This project will greatly facilitate this development by improving and maintaining general-purpose BCI software and continuing to provide it to BCI research groups throughout the world.