Sleep, alertness, and fatigue in self-regulated brain-computer interface performance: a preliminary study based on self-reported measures

While several factors may affect motor imagery-based brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) performance, little attention has been given to the role of sleep, alertness, and fatigue. This study examines the association of these factors with MI-BCI performance, assessed in terms of users’ control capability and system accuracy, at the interindividual and intraindividual levels. Two datasets are analyzed. The first, from a self-developed experimental protocol, comprises 12 healthy users who completed 5 MI-BCI sessions, each consisting of 5 blocks of 20 trials of motor imagery versus rest. The second, the Dreyer et al. (2023) dataset, includes 87 users assessed in 1 session comprising 240 trials of right versus left motor imagery. In both datasets, the variables of interest are assessed through self-report questionnaires administered before and after BCI use. At the interindividual level, assessments of attentional difficulties and habitual sleep patterns are analyzed. At the intraindividual level, previous-night sleep duration, pre-session alertness, and post-session fatigue are analyzed. Preliminary results show no clear trend between previous-night sleep duration and BCI performance, but in one dataset, results suggest lower performance among participants reporting higher pre-session sleepiness and higher post-session fatigue. Studying the effect of these variables may provide relevant information for developing BCIs more closely tailored to individual user characteristics.