A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) records brain signals, translates them into commands that operate a variety of devices, and provides feedback to the user about how intentions are transformed into actions. These three essential components, forming a closed-loop system, define the core components of a BCI. Their natural target population has traditionally been people with motor disabilities that have lost control of their body but have preserved cognitive functions, and BCIs have been intended to act as alternative assistive devices for them. However, in recent years the scope of a BCI has widened to include restoration or rehabilitation of motor and even cognitive functions for patients after some kind of central nervous system injury, brain state monitoring for healthy subjects, and new tools for studying human brain functions. An anecdotal, even fringe, field of research at the confines with science fiction when it appeared, BCIs have grown over the last 40 years from early prototypes in a handful of locations to more than 3,000 research labs and nearly 150 companies working in BCI-related areas nowadays. The complexity of today's BCI systems, which are moving beyond constrained laboratory conditions, calls for truly multidisciplinary efforts spanning clinical research to computer science and human-computer interfaces, from neuroscience to biomedical and neuroengineering, from rehabilitation to robotics and virtual reality, and from human psychology to material and electrical engineering. xiv Brain-Computer Interfaces 1 This wide range of fields that contribute to BCI makes it difficult, if not impossible, to have a unified view covering all the facets of this fascinating scientific and translational enterprise. "Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are devices which measure brain activity and translate it into messages or commands, thereby opening up many investigation and application possibilities. This book provides keys for understanding and designing these multi-disciplinary interfaces, which require many fields of expertise such as neuroscience, statistics, informatics and psychology. This first volume, Methods and Perspectives, presents all the basic knowledge underlying the working principles of BCI. It opens with the anatomical and physiological organization of the brain, followed by the brain activity involved in BCI, and following with information extraction, which involves signal processing and machine learning methods. BCI usage is then described, from the angle of human learning and human-machine interfaces. The basic notions developed in this reference book are intended to be accessible to all readers interested in BCI, whatever their background. More advanced material is also offered, for readers who want to expand their knowledge in disciplinary fields underlying BCI. This first volume will be followed by a second volume, entitled Technology and Applications."-- Résumé de l'éditeur
