Hand movement decoding by phase-locking low frequency EEG signals

Being noninvasive, low-risk and inexpensive, EEG is a promising methodology in the application of human Brain Computer Interface (BCI) to help those with motor dysfunctions. Here we employed a center-out task paradigm to study the decoding of hand velocity in the EEG recording. We tested the hypothesis using a linear regression model and found a significant correlation between velocity and the low-pass filtered EEG signal (2 Hz). The low-pass filtered EEG was not only tuned to the direction but also phase-locked to the amplitude of velocity. This suggests an EEG form of the neuronal population vector theory, which is considered to encode limb kinematic information, and provides a new method of BCI implementation.