Enhancement of Event-Related Desynchronization in Motor Imagery Based on Transcranial Electrical Stimulation

Jiaxin Xie; Maoqin Peng; Jingqing Lu; Chao Xiao; Xin Zong; Manqing Wang; Dongrui Gao; Yun Qin; Tiejun Liu

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2021.635351

Enhancement of Event-Related Desynchronization in Motor Imagery Based on Transcranial Electrical Stimulation

Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Mar 18:15:635351. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.635351. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jiaxin Xie¹, Maoqin Peng², Jingqing Lu¹, Chao Xiao¹, Xin Zong¹, Manqing Wang³, Dongrui Gao^{1

3}, Yun Qin¹, Tiejun Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
² College of Electronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, China.
³ School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Due to the individual differences controlling brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the applicability and accuracy of BCIs based on motor imagery (MI-BCIs) are limited. To improve the performance of BCIs, this article examined the effect of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) on brain activity during MI. This article designed an experimental paradigm that combines tES and MI and examined the effects of tES based on the measurements of electroencephalogram (EEG) features in MI processing, including the power spectral density (PSD) and dynamic event-related desynchronization (ERD). Finally, we investigated the effect of tES on the accuracy of MI classification using linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The results showed that the ERD of the μ and β rhythms in the left-hand MI task was enhanced after electrical stimulation with a significant effect in the tDCS group. The average classification accuracy of the transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) group and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) group (88.19% and 89.93% respectively) were improved significantly compared to the pre-and pseudo stimulation groups. These findings indicated that tES can improve the performance and applicability of BCI and that tDCS was a potential approach in regulating brain activity and enhancing valid features during noninvasive MI-BCI processing.

Keywords: brain-computer interfaces; event-related desynchronization; motor imagery; transcranial alternating current stimulation; transcranial direct current stimulation.