Enhancing the Performance of P300-based BCIs by tDCS of the Left VL-PFC

Abstract

It is shown that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the non-invasive neuromodulation techniques, are positively effective in boosting the performance of various types of BCI systems. The tDCS setups in previous works, however, focus on the stimulation in the locations on the scalp which, because of users' hair, requires electrolyte-soaked sponge electrodes to electrical-conductively bridge the gap between electrodes and scalp. This study proposes a more user-friendly approach by applying tDCS on the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VL-PFC) which locates at the left forehead and investigate its effect on P300-based BCI systems. By comparing the performance of participants between two groups: tDCS stimulation and sham-control, the results suggest that tDCS on the left VL-PFC can increase the amplitude, reduce the latency of P300 and overall boost the classification accuracy of the P300-based BCI system.