How the Challenge Works
With a BCI-related challenge, the first step is to clearly define a specific task or mental command. The more detailed the description, the better. Please include the typical user, the BCI device or neuroprosthetic, target environments, situations, and any other relevant project details. The project can be real or hypothetical.For example:
- “Send a text to a friend using my phone, while at home, just by thinking about it.”
- Or, for a paralyzed individual: “Reach to grasp my phone with a neuroprosthetic arm and hand using visualization.”
Once the challenge is clearly defined and both parties agree, Mind Brain Insights, LLC will provide a detailed 1–3 page analysis. This includes (a) a precise definition of the relevant mental states and processes, and (b) how to map them to brain activity and signals. The analysis can also cover how to construct effective mind-based signatures and classifiers.The response can then be compared to another analysis (conventional or alternative). This side-by-side comparison helps highlight the strengths of the MA Mind/brain Model while revealing potential limitations in more traditional approaches.
Aspects of Mind which can be Included in the Challenge:
- Perception: vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste, somatosensation
- Recognition, Identification
- Meaning
- Thoughts and thinking
- Goals
- Attention
- Emotion, motivation, arousal
- Imagination
- Episodic memory
- Any cognitive neuroscience category (including Russell Poldrack’s Cognitive Atlas): the reward center, executive control, working memory etc.
- Intention (to do, think, experience…)
- Language: hearing, speaking, writing, reading
- Inner speech
- Activities and tasks
- Motor control
- The self (perceptual & conceptual)
- Prediction
- Situations (social, work, leisure…)
- Conscious or unconscious states & processes
- A general conception, or specific example, of any of the above
- Any combination of the above