Introduction: For more than two decades, several research groups have tried to build a device called "brain computer interface" (BCI) to make it available for people having several disabilities such as the locked in syndrome through the use of the recording of electroencephalography activity while the patients are being visually stimulated. AIM. To obtain a P300 component elicited by intensifications of images arranged in a matrix in an oddball paradigm in two selection modes: assigned and free.
Subjects and methods: A 5 x 5 matrix for communication purposes was used to visually stimulate 12 volunteers while their event related potentials were recorded in three leads (Fz, Cz and Pz). Off-line analyses were performed to obtain the P300 component which was elicited by targets images intensified randomly by rows or columns.
Results: In both modalities assigned and free, all volunteers generated a reliable P300 component. Confirmation of the selected images was made through a comparison of the P300 when each target, row and column matched. In the free selection mode, higher amplitude and a broader activation including frontal leads was observed. No significant differences in the P300 latency were found.
Conclusion: In all volunteers the elicited P300 allows the identification of the selected images in the 5 x 5 matrix. In the present study the use of drawings representing ideas instead of letters might increase the communication rate in a P300-based BCI.