Decoding of emotional responses to user-unfriendly computer interfaces via electroencephalography signals

When a user interacts with an interface such as a computer, its effects on specific biosignals may reflect emotional responses to the interface, providing a means to evaluate usability . Towards the develop ment  of an interface that can adapt its usability based on the user ’ s emotions , here we decode d electroencephalography (EEG) activity occurring during interaction with a user- un friendly interface. Participants performed  target-reaching task s  while irregular transformations  were applied to cursor motion to induce frustration.  O ur results showed that differential signals from the frontal electrodes (AF3-AF4) were sufficient  to classify between brain activities during transformed (frustrated) and normal cursor motion (non-frustrated) . F unctional magnetic resonance imaging during the same tasks showed significant activation s in the middle frontal gyrus, orbitofrontal gyrus, and inferior parietal cortex , areas found to be related to negative emotions . Altogether, these results suggest that the usability of an interface can be measured from EEG signals, which could aid in the development of adaptive interfaces that increase its intuitiveness.