ON A GAMIFIED BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE FOR COGNITIVE TRAINING OF SPATIAL WORKING MEMORY

In the United States, there are a large number of people suffering from memory and attention deficit problems. For example, patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dementia have difficulties in performing activities of daily living and have a low quality of life. Currently, there exist no effective treatment for these memory and attention issues in specific cognitive impairments. In this paper, we developed a gamified platform of brain-computer interface (BCI) for cognitive training, which can engage users in the training and provide users qualitative and quantitative feedback for their training of spatial working memory. The user is able to control the movement of a drone using motor imager, which is imagined movement of body part. Sensorimotor rhythms of the user are calculated using the user's EEG to drive the movement of the drone. Twenty normal healthy subjects were recruited to test the user experience. Our system showed the capability of engaging users, good robustness, user acceptability and usability. Therefore, we think our platform might be an alternative to provide more accessible, engaging, and effective cognitive training for people with memory and attention problems. In future, we will test the usability and effectiveness of the system for cognitive training in patients with ADHD and dementia.