Cognitive-motor processes during arm reaching performance through a human body-machine interface

Abstract

Head controlled based systems represent a class of human body-machine interfaces that employ head motion to control an external device. Overall, the related work has focused on technical developments with limited user performance assessments while generally ignoring the underlying motor learning and cognitive processes. Thus, this study examined, during and after practice, the cognitive-motor states of users when controlling a robotic arm with limited head motion under various control modalities. As a first step, two groups having a different degree of control of the arm directions were considered. The preliminary results revealed that both groups: (i) similarly improved their reaching performance during practice; (ii) provided, after practice, a similar performance generalization while still relying on visual feedback and (iii) exhibited similar cognitive workload. This work can inform the human cognitive-motor processes during learning and performance of arm reaching movements as well as develop rehabilitation systems for disabled individuals.