Evaluation of various mental task combinations for near-infrared spectroscopy-based brain-computer interfaces

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a promisingneuroimaging modality for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). So far, most NIRS-based BCI studies have focusedon enhancing the accuracy of the classification of different mental tasks. In the present study, we evaluated theperformances of a variety of mental task combinations in order to determine the mental task pairs that are bestsuited for customized NIRS-based BCIs. To this end, we recorded event-related hemodynamic responses whileseven participants performed eight different mental tasks. Classification accuracies were then estimated for allpossible pairs of the eight mental tasks (8C2 = 28). Based on this analysis, mental task combinations with relatively high classification accuracies frequently included the following three mental tasks: “mental multiplication,” “mental rotation,” and “right-hand motor imagery.” Specifically, mental task combinations consisting of two of these three mental tasks showed the highest mean classification accuracies. It is expected that our results will be a useful reference to reduce the time needed for preliminary tests when discovering individual-specific mental task combinations.