Non-invasive BCI for Cognitive Enhancement

Non-invasive Brain Computer Interface for Cognitive Enhancement

People's perceptual skills can significantly affect their abilities to make optimal decisions, judgments, and actions in real-world dynamic environments. Perceptual learning refers to training and experiences to induce improvements in the ability to make sense of what people see, hear, feel, taste or smell based on ambiguous sensory information. In this study, investigators hypothesise that there exist neural signatures that robustly encode the conscious visual perception of rotations of a cursor and the magnitudes of these rotations in a novel, rotation-based perceptual learning task. Investigators also hypothesise that online, instantaneous EEG-based feedback on subjects' visual perceptions of rotations with an EEG-based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) can foster perceptual learning much more effectively than behaviour perceptual training, especially in very small rotation magnitudes that represent extremely difficult perceptual tasks.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy Subjects; Neuropsychiatric Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: EEG-based perceptual training; Device: Behavior based perceptual training

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78712
      • Engineering Education and Research Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Able-bodied volunteers:

• good general health
• normal or corrected vision
• no history of neurological/psychiatric disease
• ability to read and understand English
• ability to understand information and ability to give a free and informed consent

Subjects with neuropsychiatric diseases

• Subjects with neuropsychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
• normal or corrected vision
• ability to read and understand English
• ability to understand information and ability to give a free and informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• short attentional spans or cognitive deficits that prevent to remain concentrated during the experimental sessions
• concomitant serious illnesses (e.g., metabolic disorders, cardiac arrest)
• factors hindering proper EEG acquisition (e.g., scalp wound, uncontrolled muscle activity)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: EEG based perceptual training; Subjects complete a perceptual learning task in which EEG-based visual feedback is provided	Device: EEG-based perceptual training; Electroencephalography (EEG) signals will be recorded from subjects as they perform rotation-based perceptual tasks. The neural correlates of conscious perception of rotations will be processed and decoded in real-time using machine learning algorithms to provide feedback. Subjects are instructed to assume a mental state/find a strategy to maximise the accuracy of feedback. In total, each subject will complete 5 sessions of perceptual training with this intervention.
Active Comparator: Behavior based perceptual training; Subjects complete a perceptual learning task in which ground truth visual feedback is provided	Device: Behavior based perceptual training; Subjects complete the rotation-based perceptual tasks, and ground truth visual feedback is provided indicating whether subjects have spotted the rotations correctly. Subjects are instructed to spot as many rotation as possible to maximise the accuracy of feedback. In total, each subject will complete 5 sessions of perceptual training with this intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in correct answer rate of different rotation magnitudes across 5 intervention sessions	The correct answer rate per rotation magnitude reflects the improvements in perceptual skills across the two conditions. It measures the percentage of each rotation magnitude spotted correctly. The score is 0-100, and the higher the value, the better the outcome.	Difference is measured every 24 hours, before versus after each intervention session

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in neural correlates of conscious perception across 5 intervention sessions	This outcome measures whether neural correlates of conscious perception (e.g. amplitude, peak-to-peak, band power and connectivity measures of neural correlates) change across sessions as a result of intervention.	Difference is measured every 24 hours, before versus after each intervention session

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jose del R. Millan, PhD, The University of Texas at Austin

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 22, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 25, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): April 5, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 14, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 13, 2023
• Last Verified: November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020030073_p2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: All data will be made available by the online publication date. These data will be placed in public servers for any interested researcher to access it

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: Yes