Brain–Computer Interfaces for Communication and Control in Locked-in Patients

Abstract

Most Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) research aims at helping people who are severely paralyzed to regain control over their environment and to communicate with their social environment. There has been a tremendous increase in BCI research the last years, which might lead to the belief that we are close to a commercially available BCI applications to patients. However, studies with users from the future target group (those who are indeed paralyzed) are still outnumbered by studies on technical aspects of BCI applications and studies with healthy young participants. This might explain why the number of patients who use a BCI in daily life, without experts from a BCI group being present, can be counted on one hand.