Spectral modulation of frontal EEG during motor skill acquisition: a mobile EEG study.

This study investigates the modulation of frontal EEG dynamics with respect to progress in motor skill acquisition using a wireless EEG system with a single dry sensor. Participants were required to complete repeated trials of a computerized visual-motor task similar to mirror drawing while the EEG was collected. In each trial, task performance of the participants was summarized with a familiarity index which took into account the performance accuracy, completion rate and time. Our findings demonstrated that certain EEG power spectra decreased with an increase in motor task familiarity. In particular, frontal EEG activities in delta and theta bands of the whole trial and in gamma band in the middle of the trial are having a significant negative relationship with the overall familiarity level of the task. The findings suggest that frontal EEG spectra are significantly modulated during motor skill acquisition. Results of this study shed light on the possibility of simultaneous monitoring of brain activity during an unconstrained natural task with a single dry sensor mobile EEG in an everyday environment.

[1]  P. Bifulco,et al.  A mobile EEG system with dry electrodes , 2008, 2008 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference.

[2]  Tzyy-Ping Jung,et al.  Noninvasive Neural Prostheses Using Mobile and Wireless EEG , 2008, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[3]  J. Wolpaw,et al.  Clinical Applications of Brain-Computer Interfaces: Current State and Future Prospects , 2009, IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering.

[4]  N. Birbaumer,et al.  High-frequency brain activity: Its possible role in attention, perception and language processing , 1997, Progress in Neurobiology.

[5]  Chris Berka,et al.  Real-Time Analysis of EEG Indexes of Alertness, Cognition, and Memory Acquired With a Wireless EEG Headset , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[6]  A Gevins,et al.  Test–retest reliability of cognitive EEG , 2000, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[7]  Hoi-Jun Yoo,et al.  Wearable mental-health monitoring platform with independent component analysis and nonlinear chaotic analysis , 2012, 2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[8]  C. Koch,et al.  Some reflections on visual awareness. , 1990, Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology.

[9]  Andreas Keil,et al.  Temporal Stability of High-Frequency Brain Oscillations in the Human EEG , 2004, Brain Topography.

[10]  J. W. Minett,et al.  Optimizing the P300-based brain–computer interface: current status, limitations and future directions , 2011, Journal of neural engineering.

[11]  R. Passingham,et al.  The Time Course of Changes during Motor Sequence Learning: A Whole-Brain fMRI Study , 1998, NeuroImage.

[12]  I E Dror,et al.  The role of meaning and familiarity in mental transformations , 2001, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[13]  Christoph Braun,et al.  Coordinate processing during the left-to-right hand transfer investigated by EEG , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[14]  Mark R. Wilson,et al.  Implicit motor learning promotes neural efficiency during laparoscopy , 2011, Surgical Endoscopy.

[15]  Donald O. Walter,et al.  Mass action in the nervous system , 1975 .

[16]  T. Ebner,et al.  Purkinje cell complex and simple spike changes during a voluntary arm movement learning task in the monkey. , 1992, Journal of neurophysiology.

[17]  T. J. Sullivan,et al.  A user-friendly SSVEP-based brain–computer interface using a time-domain classifier , 2010, Journal of neural engineering.

[18]  John D. E. Gabrieli,et al.  Intact acquisition and long-term retention of mirror-tracing skill in Alzheimer's disease and in global amnesia. , 1993 .

[19]  M. Huzmezan,et al.  A wavelet based de-noising technique for ocular artifact correction of the electroencephalogram , 2002, Proceedings of the Second Joint 24th Annual Conference and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society] [Engineering in Medicine and Biology.

[20]  R. Passingham.  Attention to action. , 1996, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[21]  C. G. Lim,et al.  A Brain-Computer Interface Based Attention Training Program for Treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , 2012, PloS one.

[22]  Yu-Te Wang,et al.  A cell-phone-based brain–computer interface for communication in daily life , 2010, AICI.

[23]  S. Wise,et al.  Neuronal activity in the supplementary eye field during acquisition of conditional oculomotor associations. , 1995, Journal of neurophysiology.

[24]  J D Gabrieli,et al.  Intact acquisition and long-term retention of mirror-tracing skill in Alzheimer's disease and in global amnesia. , 1993, Behavioral neuroscience.

[25]  A. Burgess,et al.  Functional connectivity of gamma EEG activity is modulated at low frequency during conscious recollection. , 2002, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[26]  D G Pelli,et al.  The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: transforming numbers into movies. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[27]  Denis G. Pelli,et al.  ECVP '07 Abstracts , 2007, Perception.

[28]  Jorge Bosch,et al.  Do specific EEG frequencies indicate different processes during mental calculation? , 1999, Neuroscience Letters.

[29]  R. Jindra.  Mass action in the nervous system W. J. Freeman, Academic Press, New York (1975), 489 pp., (hard covers). $34.50 , 1976, Neuroscience.

[30]  Christoph Braun,et al.  EEG correlates of coordinate processing during intermanual transfer , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[31]  Jyh-Yeong Chang,et al.  Gaming control using a wearable and wireless EEG-based brain-computer interface device with novel dry foam-based sensors , 2012, Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

[32]  S. Wise,et al.  Learning-dependent neuronal activity in the premotor cortex: activity during the acquisition of conditional motor associations , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[33]  S. Debener,et al.  How about taking a low-cost, small, and wireless EEG for a walk? , 2012, Psychophysiology.

[34]  Peter Brown,et al.  The integration of cortical and behavioural dynamics during initial learning of a motor task , 2003, The European journal of neuroscience.

[35]  Martijn van de Pol,et al.  A simple method for distinguishing within- versus between-subject effects using mixed models , 2009, Animal Behaviour.

[36]  D H Brainard,et al.  The Psychophysics Toolbox. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[37]  W Singer,et al.  Visual feature integration and the temporal correlation hypothesis. , 1995, Annual review of neuroscience.

[38]  K Ramadoss,et al.  Automatic Identification and Removal of Ocular Artifacts from EEG using Wavelet Transform , 2006 .

[39]  R. Cooper,et al.  Brain slow potential and ERP changes associated with operator load in a visual tracking task. , 1988, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[40]  R. Desimone,et al.  Neural mechanisms for visual memory and their role in attention. , 1996, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.