Age-specific mechanisms in an SSVEP-based BCI scenario: evidences from spontaneous rhythms and neuronal oscillators

Utilizing changes in steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) is an established approach to operate a brain-computer interface (BCI). The present study elucidates to what extent development-specific changes in the background EEG influence the ability to proper handle a stimulus-driven BCI. Therefore we investigated the effects of a wide range of photic driving on children between six and ten years in comparison to an adult control group. The results show differences in the driving profiles apparently in close communication with the specific type of intermittent stimulation. The factor age gains influence with decreasing stimulation frequency, whereby the superior performance of the adults seems to be determined to a great extent by elaborated driving responses at 10 and 11 Hz, matching the dominant resonance frequency of the respective background EEG. This functional interplay was only partially obtained in higher frequency ranges and absent in the induced driving between 30 and 40 Hz, indicating distinctions in the operating principles and developmental changes of the underlying neuronal oscillators.