Abstract

During reaching actions, the human central nerve system (CNS) generates the trajectories that optimize effort and time. When there is an obstacle in the path, we make sure that our arm passes the obstacle with a sufficient margin. This comfort margin varies between individuals. When passing a fragile object, risk-averse individuals may adopt a larger margin by following the longer path than risk-prone people do. However, it is not known whether this variation is associated with a personalized cost function used for the individual optimal control policies and how it is represented in our brain activity. This study investigates whether such individual variations in evaluation criteria during reaching results from differentiated weighting given to energy minimization versus comfort, and monitors brain error-related potentials (ErrPs) evoked when subjects observe a robot moving dangerously close to a fragile object. Seventeen healthy participants monitored a robot performing safe, daring and unsafe trajectories around a wine glass. Each participant displayed distinct evaluation criteria on the energy efficiency and comfort of robot trajectories. The ErrP-BCI outputs successfully inferred such individual variation. This study suggests that ErrPs could be used in conjunction with an optimal control approach to identify the personalized cost used by CNS. It further opens new avenues for the use of brain-evoked potential to train assistive robotic devices through the use of neuroprosthetic interfaces.

Details

Title
Inferring individual evaluation criteria for reaching trajectories with obstacle avoidance from EEG signals
Author
Iwane, Fumiaki 1 ; Billard, Aude 2 ; Millán, José del R. 3 

 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), Lausanne, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5333.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2183 9049); The University of Texas at Austin, Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924); The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Neurology, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924) 
 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), Lausanne, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5333.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2183 9049) 
 The University of Texas at Austin, Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924); The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Neurology, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924); The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924); The University of Texas at Austin, Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924) 
Pages
20163
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2891090753
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.