BCI MENTOR: Testing new video game-based brain-computer interface user training methods

Study participants will be asked to attend eight 2-hour sessions at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. During each session, participants will be asked to perform different mental imagery tasks like imagining an arm movement or picturing a face to play a video game. While performing the tasks, participants will wear a cap with sensors that will measure their brain activity. We will put gel or saline solution on the participants’ head under each sensor. As wearing the cap and staying still during the experiment may be tiring, multiple breaks will be provided. The EEG device used to measure brain activity is safe and painless; however, study participation may cause discomfort, tiredness and/or frustration. While you perform these mental imagery tasks, we will provide you with feedback – images, sounds, and vibrations – that will represent the brain signals you are currently producing. We will ask you to try and use this feedback to adjust the way you perform these mental tasks so it becomes easier for a computer to detect differences in the brain signals you produce for each task. Throughout the sessions, we will ask you to report how your approach to these tasks changes and how you felt while performing the tasks. Participants will receive a gift card and volunteer hours at the end of each session as a token of our appreciation for their participation.