Improved concept and first results of an auditory single-switch BCI for the future use in disorders of consciousness patients

A promising approach to establish basic communication for disorders of consciousness (DOC) patients, is the application of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems, especially the use of single-switch BCIs (ssBCIs). Recently we proposed the concept of a novel auditory ssBCI paradigm and presented first classification results. In this study we report on the evaluation of four different modifications of the original paradigm with the intention to increase the suitability. Therefore we investigated different sound types and the inclusion of additional spatial information. Finally, the classification investigation with the most encouraging modifications shows an enhancement compared to our original paradigm, within healthy subjects, implicating better results for the future use in DOC patients.