Abstract
By translating brain signals into new kinds of outputs, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems hold tremendous potential as both transformative rehabilitation and communication tools. BCIs can be considered a unique technology, in that they are able to provide a direct link between the brain and the external environment. By affording users with opportunities for communication and self-expression, BCI systems serve as a bridge between abled-bodied and disabled users, in turn reducing existing barriers between these groups. This perspective piece explores the complex shifting relationship between neuroadaptive systems and humans by foregrounding personal experience and embodied interaction as concepts through which to evaluate digital environments cultivated through the design of BCI interfaces. To underscore the importance of fostering human-centered experiences through technologically mediated interactions, this work offers a conceptual framework through which the rehabilitative and therapeutic possibilities of BCI user-system engagement could be furthered. By inviting somatic analysis towards the design of BCI interfaces and incorporating tenets of creative arts therapies practices into hybrid navigation paradigms for self-expressive applications, this work highlights the need for examining individual technological interactions as sites with meaning-making potentiality, as well as those conceived through unique exchanges based on user-specific needs for communication. Designing BCI interfaces in ways that afford users with increased options for navigation, as well as with the ability to share subjective and collective experiences, helps to redefine existing boundaries of digital and physical user-system interactions and encourages the reimagining of these systems as novel digital health tools for recovery.
Highlights
As the field of Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) technology continues to progress rapidly, it is anticipated to serve a vital role in future rehabilitation interventions for individuals experiencing neurological and/or movement disorders
Recent research suggests that hybrid BCIs may improve overall BCI performance through combing different features of brain signals, which can include the use of two BCI navigational paradigms, or through integrating BCI and another system (Bamdad et al, 2015; Todd et al, 2012)
Despite the potential for BCI systems to serve as both rehabilitation and communication tools, art and creative expression are often overlooked in assistive technology (AT) development (Huggins et al, 2019)
Summary
As the field of Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) technology continues to progress rapidly, it is anticipated to serve a vital role in future rehabilitation interventions for individuals experiencing neurological and/or movement disorders. Co-integrating both types of feedback loops within technological system designed to serve a therapeutic purpose may reveal a third type of loop that assumes a top-down approach; one which affords individuals the ability to rehabilitate the brain through guided feedback by using artistic and musical therapy as expression planes This has the potential to help those who struggle with traditional learning practices to better communicate their experiences and promote their own processes of healing and recovery (Kaimal, 2019; King and Kaimal, 2019). This suggests that interface architecture plays a role in identity formation through the process of social interaction, and as such, efforts to examine the relationship between a specific environment and self-expression as it relates to BCI systems should not be conceived with a “one-size-fits-all” approach (Lowery and DeFleur, 1983; Postmes et al, 2005; Nisbet and Scheufele, 2009)
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