The impact of distractions on intracortical brain–computer interface control of a robotic arm

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of distractions on intracortical brain–computer interface (BCI) performance. Two individuals with tetraplegia had microelectrode arrays implanted into their motor cortex. Each used a BCI to move a robotic arm between two targets as quickly as possible, performed alone and with distractions. Performance outcomes were similar across conditions, except for a drop in the median path efficiency in the motor action distraction for Subject P2 (p = 0.033, Mann–Whitney U-test). Other distraction conditions resulted in intermittent impairments in performance, but were not statistically different from the no distraction condition. Both subjects rated the overall difficulty of the task with and without distractions as low. Consistent levels of BCI performance were mirrored by small differences in neural firing rates across conditions, demonstrating that experienced BCI users can maintain performance on a simple reaching task under these various conditions.