Enabling bio-feedback using real-time fMRI

— Despite the enormous complexity of the human mind, fMRI techniques are able to partially observe the state of a brain in action. In this paper we describe an experimental setup for real-time fMRI in a bio-feedback loop. One of the main challenges in the project is to reach a detection speed, accuracy and spatial resolution necessary to attain sufficient bandwidth of communication to close the bio-feedback loop. To this end we have banked on our previous work on real-time filtering for fMRI and system identification, which has been tailored for use in the experiment setup. In the experiments presented the system is trained to estimate where a person in the MRI scanner is looking from signals derived from the visual cortex only. We have been able to demonstrate that the user can induce an action and perform simple tasks with her mind sensed using real-time fMRI. The technique may have several clinical applications, for instance to allow paralyzed and "locked in" people t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CDC
• Authors: Henrik Ohlsson, Joakim Rydell, Anders Brun, Jacob Roll, Mats T. Andersson, Anders Ynnerman, Hans Knutsson
• Keywords: Bio-feedback Loop, CDC 2008, Control Systems, FMRI, Real-time FMRI