A Brief Review of Brain Signal Monitoring Technologies for BCI Applications: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Significant strides have been made since 1940s for monitoring brain activities and utilizing the information for diagnosis, therapy, and control of robotic instruments including prosthetics. Monitoring brain activities with brain computer interfacing (BCI) technologies are of recent interest to due to the immense potential for various medical applications, particularly for many neurological disorder patients, and the emergence of technologies suitable for long duration BCI applications. Recent initiatives are geared towards transforming these clinic centric technologies to patient centric technologies by monitoring brain activities in practical settings. This paper briefly reviews current status of these technologies and relevant challenges. The technologies can be broadly classified into non-invasive (EEG, MEG, MRI) and invasive (Microelectrode, ECoG, MEA). Challenges to resolve include neuronal damage, neurotrophicity, usability and comfort.