Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing
Intentions, including their temporal properties and semantic content, are receiving increased attention, and neuroscientific studies in humans vary with respect to the topography of intention-related neural responses. This may reflect the fact that the kind of intentions investigated in one study ma...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2012-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00455/full |
| _version_ | 1818924429573357568 |
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| author | Franziska eThinnes-Elker Franziska eThinnes-Elker Franziska eThinnes-Elker Olga eIljina Olga eIljina John Kyle Apostolides John Kyle Apostolides Felicitas eKraemer Andreas eSchulze-Bonhage Ad eAertsen Ad eAertsen Tonio eBall Tonio eBall |
| author_facet | Franziska eThinnes-Elker Franziska eThinnes-Elker Franziska eThinnes-Elker Olga eIljina Olga eIljina John Kyle Apostolides John Kyle Apostolides Felicitas eKraemer Andreas eSchulze-Bonhage Ad eAertsen Ad eAertsen Tonio eBall Tonio eBall |
| author_sort | Franziska eThinnes-Elker |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Intentions, including their temporal properties and semantic content, are receiving increased attention, and neuroscientific studies in humans vary with respect to the topography of intention-related neural responses. This may reflect the fact that the kind of intentions investigated in one study may not be exactly the same kind investigated in the other. Fine-grained intention taxonomies developed in the philosophy of mind may be useful to identify the neural correlates of well-defined types of intentions, as well as to disentangle them from other related mental states, such as mere urges to perform an action. Intention-related neural signals may be exploited by brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that are currently being developed to restore speech and motor control in paralyzed subjects. Such BMI devices record the brain activity of the agent, interpret (‘decode’) the agent’s intended action, and send the corresponding execution command to an artificial effector system, e.g., a computer cursor or a robotic arm. In the present paper, we evaluate the potential of intention concepts from philosophy of mind to improve the performance and safety of BMIs based on higher-order, intention-related control signals. To this end, we address the distinction between future-, present-directed, and motor intentions, as well as the organization of intentions in time, specifically to what extent it is sequential or hierarchical. This has consequences as to whether these different types of intentions can be expected to occur simultaneously or not. We further illustrate how it may be useful or even necessary to distinguish types of intentions exposited in philosophy, including yes- vs. no-intentions and oblique vs. direct intentions, to accurately decode the agent’s intentions from neural signals in practical BMI applications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T02:25:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f645dcfe54ca487192bc761a14692573 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T02:25:11Z |
| publishDate | 2012-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f645dcfe54ca487192bc761a146925732022-12-21T19:56:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782012-11-01310.3389/fpsyg.2012.0045533828Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacingFranziska eThinnes-Elker0Franziska eThinnes-Elker1Franziska eThinnes-Elker2Olga eIljina3Olga eIljina4John Kyle Apostolides5John Kyle Apostolides6Felicitas eKraemer7Andreas eSchulze-Bonhage8Ad eAertsen9Ad eAertsen10Tonio eBall11Tonio eBall12University Hospital FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgUniversity Hospital FreiburgHermann Paul School of LinguisticsUniversity of FreiburgJuniata CollegeEindhoven University of TechnologyUniversity Hospital FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgUniversity Hospital FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgIntentions, including their temporal properties and semantic content, are receiving increased attention, and neuroscientific studies in humans vary with respect to the topography of intention-related neural responses. This may reflect the fact that the kind of intentions investigated in one study may not be exactly the same kind investigated in the other. Fine-grained intention taxonomies developed in the philosophy of mind may be useful to identify the neural correlates of well-defined types of intentions, as well as to disentangle them from other related mental states, such as mere urges to perform an action. Intention-related neural signals may be exploited by brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that are currently being developed to restore speech and motor control in paralyzed subjects. Such BMI devices record the brain activity of the agent, interpret (‘decode’) the agent’s intended action, and send the corresponding execution command to an artificial effector system, e.g., a computer cursor or a robotic arm. In the present paper, we evaluate the potential of intention concepts from philosophy of mind to improve the performance and safety of BMIs based on higher-order, intention-related control signals. To this end, we address the distinction between future-, present-directed, and motor intentions, as well as the organization of intentions in time, specifically to what extent it is sequential or hierarchical. This has consequences as to whether these different types of intentions can be expected to occur simultaneously or not. We further illustrate how it may be useful or even necessary to distinguish types of intentions exposited in philosophy, including yes- vs. no-intentions and oblique vs. direct intentions, to accurately decode the agent’s intentions from neural signals in practical BMI applications.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00455/fullBMIBCIPhilosophy of Mindaction intentionintentional |
| spellingShingle | Franziska eThinnes-Elker Franziska eThinnes-Elker Franziska eThinnes-Elker Olga eIljina Olga eIljina John Kyle Apostolides John Kyle Apostolides Felicitas eKraemer Andreas eSchulze-Bonhage Ad eAertsen Ad eAertsen Tonio eBall Tonio eBall Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing Frontiers in Psychology BMI BCI Philosophy of Mind action intention intentional |
| title | Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing |
| title_full | Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing |
| title_fullStr | Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing |
| title_short | Intention concepts and brain-machine interfacing |
| title_sort | intention concepts and brain machine interfacing |
| topic | BMI BCI Philosophy of Mind action intention intentional |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00455/full |
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