https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8709-4350
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ABSTRACT
The Eighth International Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) Meeting was held June 7–9, 2021 in a virtual format. The conference continued the BCI Meeting series’ interactive nature with 21 workshops covering the breadth of topics in BCI (also called brain–machine interface) research. Some workshops provided detailed examinations of methods, hardware, or processes. Others focused on BCI applications or user groups. Several workshops continued consensus building efforts designed to create BCI standards and improve comparisons between studies and the potential for meta-analysis and large multi-site clinical trials. Ethical and translational considerations were the primary topic for some workshops or an important secondary consideration for others. The range of BCI applications continues to expand, with more workshops focusing on approaches that can extend beyond the needs of those with physical impairments. This paper summarizes each workshop, provides background information and references for further study, summarizes discussions, and describes the resulting conclusion, challenges, or initiatives.
Acknowledgments
Overall Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Wellcome Foundation for support assisting student participation in the BCI Meeting. We also thank the Research Foundation Flanders for support of the Meeting. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of any funding agency that may have supported work presented at the BCI Meeting or in the individual workshops.
The organizers of the workshop thank their presenters and participants for their presentations and thoughtful discussion. And, of course, we thank the many and varied funding sources that supported the research presented in the workshops. The workshop organizers also thank the members of the Program Committee for the Eighth International Brain–Computer Interface Meeting: José del R. Millán, Chuck Anderson, Guy Cheron, Jennifer Collinger, Marc Van Hulle, Dean Krusienski, Steven Laureys, Marc Slutzky, and Mariska Vansteensel.
Individual Workshop Acknowledgements
The work presented in Biomimetic approaches to restore somatosensation was supported by the NIH (R01 NS095251, U01 NS098975, UH3NS107714, U01NS108922), the National Science Foundation (IOS 1150209), the Kimberley Clark Foundation, EU Grant FET 611687, the Swiss National Science Foundation National Competence Center in Research in Robotics, the Bertarelli Foundation, the T&C Chen Brain–Machine Interface Center, the USC Neurorestoration Center, DARPA (NC66001-15-C-4041, N66001-16-C4501), and the US Department of Veterans Affairs (C3819C).
The workshop Brain–computer interfaces for the assessment of patients with disorders of consciousness was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 841116 (RS).
The workshop Brain–Computer Interfaces for Human Enhancement was supported by the US DOD Bilateral Academic Research Initiative program (W911NF1810434). The funders had no role in workshop organization, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
The workshop From Speech Decoding to Speech was supported by NSF (1608140/1902395/2011595) and BMBF (01GQ1602) and as part of the NSF/NIH/BMBF Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience Program (CRCNS).
The workshop On the need of good practices and standards for Benchmarking Brain-Machine Interfaces was supported by the IEEE Brain Initiative, the IEEE Standards Association Industry Connections Program, the Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence in Europe (CLAIRE), and National Science Foundation Awards #1650536 I/UCRC for Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology (IUCRC BRAIN Center) and PFI # 1827769.
The workshop The design of effective BCIs for children was supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the NIH (P41 EB018783), resources at the US Department of Veterans Affairs Stratton VA Medical Center, the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Board, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI).
The workshop Toward the decoding of neural information for motor control: present and future approaches was partly supported by the European Research Council (ERC-CoG-2015 681231 ‘Feel Your Reach’)
Disclosure statement
CG is the owner and CEO of g.tec medical engineering GmbH.
DV is an employee of Neurable, Inc
GMP is on the board of directors of the BCI Society
JEH is a co-Editor-in-Chief of Brain–Computer Interfaces, on the board of directors of the BCI Society, and has a pending patent on a BCI application used in one of the referenced papers.
MV is on the board of directors of the BCI Society
RG is a member of the scientific advisory board for Braingrade GmbH.