https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7075-413X
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ABSTRACT
Brain–computer interfaces (BCI) decode user’s intentions to control external devices. However, performance variations across individuals have limited their use to laboratory environments. Handedness could contribute to these variations, especially when motor imagery (MI) tasks are used for BCI control. To further understand how handedness affects BCI control, performance differences between two monozygotic twins were analysed during offline movement and MI tasks, and while twins controlled a BCI using right-hand MI. Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), brain structures’ volumes, and neuropsychological tests were assessed to evaluate physiological, anatomical and psychological relationships with BCI performance. Results showed that both twins had good motor imagery and attention abilities, similar volumes on most subcortical brain structures, more pronounced event-related desynchronization elicited by the twin performing non-dominant MI, and that this twin also obtained significant higher performances with the BCI. Linear regression analysis implied a strong association between twins’ BCI performance, and more pronounced cortical activations in the contralateral hemisphere relative to hand MI. Therefore, it is possible that BCI performance was related with the ability of each twin to elicit cortical activations during hand MI, and less associated with subcortical brain structures’ volumes and neuropsychological tests.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the participants for their collaboration in this study and Juan Carlos Echeverría Arjonilla for the helpful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, JCN. The data are not publicly available due to data containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.