Two-dimensional movement control using electrocorticographic signals in humans

We show here that a brain-computer interface (BCI) using electrocorticographic activity (ECoG) and imagined or overt motor tasks enables humans to control a computer cursor in two dimensions. Over a brief training period of 12-36 min, each of five human subjects acquired substantial control of particular ECoG features recorded from several locations over the same hemisphere, and achieved average success rates of 53-73% in a two-dimensional four-target center-out task in which chance accuracy was 25%. Our results support the expectation that ECoG-based BCIs can combine high performance with technical and clinical practicality, and also indicate promising directions for further research.