Project of the Scientific Grant Agency VEGA 2/0503/13

Duration of the project: 01/2013 - 12/2015

Principal investigator: Ing. Mgr. Roman Rosipal, PhD.

The project aims to investigate the theoretical and empirical aspects of the human cognition in the context of interaction between perception and action. We pursue the grounded cognition perspective that links humancognitive abilities with the sensorimotor behavior and the underlying neural substrate that includes the mirror neuron system. We will improve our theory of graded action understanding, and will design and evaluate behavioral experiments to support it, focusing on self-executed, observed and imagined motor actions, measured by the mu rhythm suppression of the brain electrical activity (EEG) on the scalp. We will exploit motor imagery, known to elicit similar suppression effects, in designing and testing the adaptive brain-computer interface system and its optimization. We will also investigate the role of appropriately designed visual feedback during online sessions, leading to improved user performance. 

The project focuses on theoretical and empirical investigations of the human cognition in the context of understanding the socially-oriented behavior and the exploitation of motor imagery in improving the human-computer interaction. We pursue the grounded cognition perspective, supported by growing empiricalevidence, that links human cognitive abilities with the sensorimotor behavior and the underlying neural substrate,that includes the mirror neuron system. The project has two major goals that will be pursued using combined
methodological tools.
1. Action understanding. We will improve our hypothesis of graded action understanding and test it with appropriate behavioral experiments, combined with non-invasive measurements of brain electrical activity on scalp (EEG). We will experimentally test the nature of motor resonance, based on the degree of the EEG mu rhythm desynchronization (suppression), that presumably depends on the familiarity of observed actions and theirdegree of abstractness. The theoretical part of this goal will analyze the role of the theory of mind in socially-oriented behavior, and the appreciation of the motor-based theory of understanding, in comparison to non-motor-based theory.

2. Brain-computer interface (BCI): We will investigate the underlying role of the mirror neuron system in trainingthe BCI system. We will focus on a BCI approach based on motor imagery, that provides measurable "brainsignatures" of imagined motor actions that can be associated with intentional mental states to be exploited; for example in controlling the cursor on the computer screen. This goal will include the design of an appropriatevisual feedback that should help the subject in training the BCI. A part of this investigation will focus on thedegree of abstractness of user's visual feedback in terms of a reward (for the user) during online sessions.