Frederich Dehais is a professor at ISAE-SUPAERO In Toulouse, France and a leading researcher in brain-computer interface. His research is a wonderful combination of signal processing and machine learning with applications in cognitive neuroscience. 

The abstract of his presentation:

The Steady-State Visually Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) refers to the rhythmic activity observed in the occipital cortical areas in response to periodic rapid visual stimulations (RVS). SSVEP responses have been widely used for fundamental research purposes in the field of cognitive neuroscience to investigate overt/covert attention, face processing, reading, and working memory, among others. The rapid onset of the sustained responses and the high discriminability following a single stimulation have also established SSVEPs as a ubiquitous paradigm for the development of reactive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Despite their potential benefits, SSVEP paradigms are visually intrusive and distracting for volunteers, potentially leading to decreased task performance and eye strain due to visual fatigue. Moreover, SSVEP-based BCI requires a long and tedious calibration phase for the end-users. The aim of this talk is to show that it is possible to design innovative visual stimulation to overcome these issues. The latest research will be presented, which involves using peri-liminal periodic visual stimuli to investigate attention and vigilance. Furthermore, benefits of using new types of visually comfortable aperiodic visual stimuli in conjunction with convolutional neural networks will be discussed, which can significantly reduce BCI calibration time, improve classification accuracy, and enhance user experience. Such an approach enables the implementation of transparent and “dual” active-passive BCIs to enhance the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines.

Date and time: 20.4.23, 16:30

Place: Währinger Straße 29-SR4