Analysis of real-time brain activity while controlling an animated 3D cube

• Main Authors: Nisar, Humaira, Balasubramaniam, H. C., Lee, W. T., Yeoh, Q. W., Malik, Aamir Saeed, Yeap, K.
• Format: Citation Index Journal
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Q Science (General); T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utp.edu.my/10885/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Objectives: Advancement in the brain computer interface technology has lead to the development of inexpensive non-invasive devices like Emotive EPOC. This headset with 14 channels can be used for controlling games by using the power of mind (needs training). In this study, we analyse the brain activity while controlling an animated 3D cube. Methods: This study is conducted with 16 subjects (14 males, 2 females; mean age 22.39±1.02 years). Four types of activities have been tested; i.e. Push, Pull, Left and Right. The subjects were asked to train two activities (Push and Pull) 3 times,rest for 2 minutes and then test each trained activity for 5 minutes. Then repeat the same procedure for Left and Right movement. EEG recordings were made while testing different activities. At the end of the session,subjects filled in a questionnaire that included information about their cumulative grade point average (CGPA), weekly physical activity and difficulty level of training/testing sessions. Results: It was found that the subjects belonging to high physical activity group (>= 4 hours/week) exhibit higher power at right parietal and frontal lobes in delta and theta bands for Push action and in frontal and parietal for all the rhythms for Left action. On the other hand, low physical activity group has high delta, theta and alpha activity in parietal, frontal, temporal and occipital lobes for all movements/ actions, with especially high absolute power for Pull action in delta and theta bands and for Right action in theta band. Subjects with high CGPA (>= 3) showed higher delta, theta and alpha activity in all lobes for right movement. High delta activity is also noted in all region for Push, Pull and Left, high theta activity is noted in Parietal, Frontal, Occipital, whereas high alpha activity is found in Frontal and Parietal for Push, Pull, Left movement.Very high delta activity is observed in frontal lobe for Right. High delta activity for push in right Parietal, for Pull in Frontal, right Parietal and for left high theta activity in Parietal and Frontal lobe. Conclusion: From the results, we conclude that training the brain to perform virtual physical activity results in high brain activation for subjects with less weekly physical activity. It is also observed that subjects with high CGPA have more brain activation while performing virtual physical activity. Subjective feedback shows that 3.25 find the procedure difficult, 6.25 moderate and 5.25 found it easy to handle.