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（如肌萎缩性侧索硬化症（ALS），脑干中风，脑瘫和脊髓损伤）的人提供新的通信通道-脑机接口（BCI）。脑机接口技术可以让完全瘫痪或“被锁住”的人向护理人员表达愿望，使用文字处理程序，访问互联网，甚至操作神经假肢。到目前为止，脑机接口的研究已经证明，使用不同的大脑信号、不同的信号分析和不同的操作格式，各种不同的方法可以将人的命令传递给计算机。从这个示范阶段到对运动障碍者具有长期价值的实际应用，未来的进展需要对这些不同的方法进行系统的比较和整合。可用于实现任何BCI设计的灵活的通用BCI系统可以极大地促进这一过程。在过去的五年中，我们开发了这样一个系统，称为BCI2000，我们已经向世界各地的63个实验室提供了它。他们将它用于各种各样的研究。本应用程序的目标是进一步开发和维护BCI2000，以确保其在快速发展的BCI研究领域的持续和不断增长的效用。15年来，我们的实验室一直处于脑机接口研究的前沿。我们发起并领导BCI2000的跨学科和跨国发展。本提案的目的是：(1)使BCI2000更适应其他用户的需求和其他技术，以确保其在这些需求和技术变化时继续发挥作用；(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；(3)开发和维护完整的BCI2000文档和用户支持，使更多的用户能够有效地使用BCI2000。我们期望这些目标的实现以及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，并加速其从实验室演示到实现脑机接口应用的持续过渡，为运动障碍人士提供明确的实用价值。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向计算机传达他们的意图。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的BCI软件并继续向世界各地的BCI研究小组提供它，从而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.