Moving Thoughts
- A Brain-Computer Interfacing Project at RuG

At Groningen University, three departments are currently joining efforts in the area of brain-computer interfacing. Recent findings in cognitive neuroscience indicate that imagined movement or targeted imagination may result in detectable EEG patterns such that movement-control signals may be derived.

The research groups from Human-Movement Sciences, Experimental Psychology and Artificial Intelligence cooperate in exploring both the fundamentals of brain state and EEG as well as the new possibilities which exist in "mind" control of devices. In its simplest form, it has already been shown by Wolpaw and other groups, that movement control of the computer mouse by imagined motion is possible, in principle.

Research Questions

  • What are the brain states or mental imaginations which
    are suitable for brain-computer interfacing?

  • What type of control is functionally most effective:
    • continuous motor control of a virtual end effector;
    • or ballistic, cognitive "1 out of N" selection (the mental radio button)?

  • In what way does mentally induced movement control obey
    the laws that have already been established for muscular motor control?

  • How to implement mutual learning processes in man and machine?

  • What are the optimal feature representations to be derived from the EEG signals as regards trainability and effectiveness in movement control?

Team Leaders

Medical Engineering and Instrumentation

Junior researchers

  • Pieter Laurens Baljon
  • Wout Kenbeek
  • Tiemen van der Tuijn

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