Auditory brain-computer interfaces for complete locked-in patients

Abstract

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are intended for people unable to do any muscular movement such as complete locked-in patients. Most of the BCIs make use of visual interaction with the user, either in form of stimulation or biofeedback. However, visual BCIs challenge the ultimate use of BCIs because they require the subjects to gaze, explore and coordinate the eyes using their muscles, thus ruling out complete locked-in patients. Despite auditory BCIs overcome the problem of the visuals, there are not many examples of them in the BCI literature. In this paper we review the research and main contributions to auditory BCIs, and compare them with visual BCIs, especially to communicate with complete locked-in patients. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.