A Novel Hybrid Brain–Computer Interface Integrating Motor Imagery and Multiple Visual Stimuli

Abstract

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) that integrate Motor Imagery (MI) with Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) or Overt Spatial Attention (OSA) have demonstrated superior performance compared to MI only BCI. Nonetheless, the exploration of BCI that combine MI with visual tasks remains limited, and the synchronization between MI and visual tasks is often weak. To address this gap, our study introduces a novel BCI paradigm that combines MI with two visual tasks: SSVEP and OSA. In this paradigm, dynamic images depicting left and right arm movements flash at distinct frequencies, serving as visual stimuli positioned on both sides of the screen. Four classification methods are used for testing. The MI+SSVEP+OSA paradigm achieves higher average accuracy than the MI, MI+SSVEP, and MI+OSA paradigms. This validates the effectiveness of our novel paradigm and confirms the feasibility of simultaneously integrating MI with two visual stimuli. Moreover, we observe that the integration of SSVEP offers significant improvements, especially for participants who exhibit limited performance in the MI only paradigm. Additionally, our results indicate comparable performance between the MI+SSVEP and MI+OSA paradigms. Overall, this study offers valuable insights that can guide future research in hybrid BCI development, paving the way for more efficient and user-friendly BCI.