Effects of Soft Drinks on Resting State EEG and Brain-Computer Interface Performance.

Jianjun Meng,Kaitlin Maile,Jeffrey He,Taylor Streitz,Bin He,Nicholas Gulachek,John Mundahl

doi:10.1109/access.2017.2751069

Jianjun Meng, Kaitlin Maile + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2017.2751069

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Abstract

Motor imagery-based (MI based) brain-computer interface (BCI) using electroencephalography (EEG) allows users to directly control a computer or external device by modulating and decoding the brain waves. A variety of factors could potentially affect the performance of BCI such as the health status of subjects or the environment. In this study, we investigated the effects of soft drinks and regular coffee on EEG signals under resting state and on the performance of MI based BCI. Twenty-six healthy human subjects participated in three or four BCI sessions with a resting period in each session. During each session, the subjects drank an unlabeled soft drink with either sugar (Caffeine Free Coca-Cola), caffeine (Diet Coke), neither ingredient (Caffeine Free Diet Coke), or a regular coffee if there was a fourth session. The resting state spectral power in each condition was compared; the analysis showed that power in alpha and beta band after caffeine consumption were decreased substantially compared to control and sugar condition. Although the attenuation of powers in the frequency range used for the online BCI control signal was shown, group averaged BCI online performance after consuming caffeine was similar to those of other conditions. This work, for the first time, shows the effect of caffeine, sugar intake on the online BCI performance and resting state brain signal.

Highlights

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have shown promise to re-establish the connection between brain and the outside world for both healthy human subjects and patients who suffer from severe neuromuscular disorders including muscular dystrophy, stroke, and spinal cord injury [1]
The statistical analysis support the hypothesis that there is no significant difference of Percent Valid Correct (PVC) performance between before and after each type of drink, whether it contains caffeine, sugar or neither, but there is a significant difference of PVC performance before and after the resting state of 32 minutes
We have addressed the question if caffeinated soft drinks and caffeinated coffee would have effects on MI based BCI performance and resting state EEG in a group of 26 human subjects

Summary

Introduction

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have shown promise to re-establish the connection between brain and the outside world for both healthy human subjects and patients who suffer from severe neuromuscular disorders including muscular dystrophy, stroke, and spinal cord injury [1]. The SMR includes both alpha and beta rhythms [34] and might be affected by both the reduction of power and shift of frequency. These factors altogether confound the effect of caffeine on the performance of BCI, which has not been investigated before, to the best of our knowledge. Because caffeine is one of the world’s most commonly used stimulant [36] and a great amount of caffeine intake is consumed through soft drinks, this work aims to investigate the effect of caffeine and sugar intake on the MI based BCI performance and resting state (RS) brain signals in the alpha and beta frequency bands after soft drink consumption

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