Abstract
A nonlinear effect of biological feedback on visual perception is studied when a brain–computer interface is applied. The implemented algorithm for estimation of visual attention is based on the time–frequency analysis of human electroencephalograms in real time by measuring the amplitude of the stimulus-related brain response, which takes subsequently positive and negative values. The analysis shows that time intervals with positive amplitude are associated with periods of sustained attention, whereas time intervals with negative amplitude are related to mental fatigue. The comparison of the results obtained in two groups of subjects, one without feedback and another with feedback, demonstrate that the feedback control prolongs the periods of sustained attention. The largest interval of sustained attention in the former group reached only \(100\pm 20\) s versus \(150\pm 40\) s in the latter group. However, the mean degree of attention, estimated by averaging the brain response amplitude over the whole interval, was 27% lower in the group with feedback than in another group. The obtained results evidence that cognitive resource is limited, and therefore, to maintain high performance for prolonged time, the brain has to work in a “safe-mode” regime.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant 17-72-30003) in the part of experimental studies and intelligent control system realization for BCI. V.A.M. thanks President Program (project MK-992.2018.2) for personal support in the part of biological feedback influence analysis. A.N.P. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project SAF2016-80240) in the part of neurophysiological experimental design preparation.
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Subjects participated in the experiment on a voluntary and gratuitous basis. All participants signed an informed medical consent to participate in the experimental work and received all necessary explanations about the process, including their agreement for further publication of the results. Acquired experimental data were processed with respect the confidentiality and anonymity of research respondents. The experimental studies were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the local research Ethics Committee of the Yuri Gagarin State Technical University of Saratov.
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Maksimenko, V.A., Hramov, A.E., Grubov, V.V. et al. Nonlinear effect of biological feedback on brain attentional state. Nonlinear Dyn 95, 1923–1939 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-018-4668-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-018-4668-1