An Affective BCI Driven by Self-induced Emotions for People with Severe Neurological Disorders

Conditions of extreme neurological disability prevent any form of communication, even to show the emotional state. Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) often use Electro-encephalography (EEG) measurements of the voluntary brain activity for driving a communication system. A BCI usage requires the activation of mental tasks. In the last few years, a new paradigm of activation has been used consisting in the autonomous brain activation through self-induced emotions, remembered on autobiographical basis. In the present paper, we describe the state of the art of an affective BCI system, a-BCI, based on self-induced emotions. It can be used by people with Severe Neurological Disorders (SND) for: alternative communication, emotion transmission.