BCI2000: SOFTWARE FOR BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE RESEARCH

描述(申请人提供)：来自大脑的信号可以为肌萎缩侧索硬化症(ALS)、脑干中风、脑瘫和脊髓损伤等严重神经肌肉疾病患者提供一种新的沟通渠道--脑机接口(BCI)。脑机接口技术可以让完全瘫痪或被锁定的人向照顾者表达愿望，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递到计算机。从示范阶段到对运动障碍患者具有长期价值的实际应用的未来进展需要对这些不同的方法进行系统的比较和整合。灵活的通用脑-机接口系统可用于实现任何脑-机接口设计，极大地促进了这一过程。在过去的五年里，我们开发了这样一个系统，称为BCI2000，我们已经将其提供给世界各地的63个实验室。他们正在用它进行各种各样的研究。这一应用程序的目标是进一步开发和维护BCI2000，以确保其对快速增长的脑-机接口研究领域的持续和不断增长的效用。15年来，我们的实验室一直走在脑-机接口研究的前沿。我们发起并正在领导BCI2000的跨学科和跨国发展。这项建议的目的是：(1)使BCI2000更适应其他用户的需求和其他技术，以确保随着这些需求和技术的变化而继续使用BCI2000；(2)通过在BCI2000中加入对其他硬件、软件和操作系统的支持来利用这种增加的灵活性；以及(3)开发和维护完整的BCI2000文档和用户支持，以使更多的用户能够有效地使用BCI2000。我们预计，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极大地促进脑机接口研究，并加速其正在进行的从实验室示范到实现脑机接口应用的过渡，对运动障碍患者具有明显的实用价值。外行语言描述：许多最近的研究表明，严重瘫痪的人可以单独使用大脑信号来向计算机传达他们的意图。实现这一点的脑机接口(BCI)技术还需要进一步的发展才能广泛应用。该项目将通过改进和维护通用脑-机接口软件并继续将其提供给世界各地的脑-机接口研究小组，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.