Emotional brain-computer interfaces

Abstract

Research in brain-computer interface (BCI) has significantly increased during the last few years. Additionally to their initial role as assisting devices for the physically challenged, BCIs are now proposed for a wider range of applications. As any human-machine interaction system, BCIs can benefit from adapting their operation to the emotional state of the user. BCIs already have access to the brain activity, which provides significant insight into the user's emotional state. This information can be utilised in two manners. (1) Knowledge of the influence of the emotional state on brain activity patterns can allow the BCI to adapt its recognition algorithms, so that the intention of the user is correctly interpreted in spite of signal deviations induced by the subject's emotional state. (2) The ability to recognise emotions can be used to provide the user with more natural ways of controlling the BCI through affective modulation and can potentially lead to higher communication throughput.