BCI-teleoperated androids; a study of embodiment and its effect on motor imagery learning

Abstract

This paper presents a brain computer interface (BCI) system developed for the tele-operation of a very humanlike android. Employing this system, we review two studies that give insights into the cognitive mechanism of agency and body ownership during BCI control, as well as feedback designs for optimization of user's BCI skills. In the first experiment operators experienced an illusion of embodiment (in terms of body ownership and agency) for the robot's body only by imagining a movement (motor imagery) and watching the robot perform it. Also using the same setup, we could further discover that during BCI-operation of the android, biasing the timing and accuracy of the performance feedback could improve operators' modulation of brain activities for the motor imagery task. Our experiments showed that the motor imagery skills acquired through this technique were not limited to the android robot, and had long-lasting effects for other BCI usage as well. Therefore, by focusing on the human side of BCIs and demonstrating a relationship between the body ownership sensation and motor imagery learning, our BCI-teleoperation system offers a new and efficient platform for general BCI application.