Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain-Computer Interfaces
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1437965
This article is part of the Research Topic The role of code-modulated evoked potentials in next-generation brain-computer interfacing View all 4 articles

A Bayesian dynamic stopping method for evoked response brain-computer interfacing

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
  • 2 MindAffect, Ede, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As brain-computer interfacing (BCI) systems transition from assistive technology to more diverse applications, their speed, reliability, and user experience become increasingly important. Dynamic stopping methods enhance BCI system speed by deciding at any moment whether to output a result or wait for more information. Such approach leverages trial variance, allowing good trials to be detected earlier, thereby speeding up the process without significantly compromising accuracy. Existing dynamic stopping algorithms typically optimize measures such as symbols per minute (SPM) and information transfer rate (ITR). However, these metrics may not accurately reflect system performance for specific applications or user types. Moreover, many methods depend on arbitrary thresholds or parameters that require extensive training data. We propose a model-based approach that takes advantage of the analytical knowledge that we have about the underlying classification model. By using a risk minimisation approach, our model allows precise control over the types of errors and the balance between precision and speed. This adaptability makes it ideal for customizing BCI systems to meet the diverse needs of various applications. We validate our proposed method on a publicly available dataset, comparing it with established static and dynamic stopping methods. Our results demonstrate that our approach offers a broad range of accuracy-speed trade-offs and achieves higher precision than baseline stopping methods.

    Keywords: Bayes test, Brain-Computer Interfacing, Dynamic stopping, Early stopping, visual evoked potentials

    Received: 24 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ahmadi, Thielen and Desain. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sara Ahmadi, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.