Development of Cognitive Training Program with EEG Headset

Zhipeng Huang, Purdue University

Abstract

To improve cognitive skills, we developed a series of training programs using the Unity 3D™ Game Engine which connects the EPOC headset from EMOTIV™ providing EEG data. To keep participants’ interest and improve training efficiency, each program was developed as a game-like application with three levels of difficulty. The programs allow users to play games according to the game rules. Our programs focus on cognitive abilities such as reaction speed, flexibility, attention span, memory and problem solving. The detection system can analyze the user’s training performance, thus automatically channeling the user to a suitable training level. To simplify the software development stage, an interactive framework was designed as application programming interface (API) to define the interactive software contents with rich texts, static image, animation and interactions. We also conducted a training test to investigate whether cognitive training with EPOC headset improves user’s cognitive skills. The training test indicates that our training is effective for some users. In the future, more comprehensive tests need to be performed for evaluating the training results and effectiveness. We will correspondingly revise and advance our training designs based on the feedbacks from tests with the ultimate goal of improving cognitive skills in the long term.

Degree

M.S.E.C.E.

Advisors

Yang, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Computer science

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