| Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been investigated as a potential brain computer interface. It was hypothesized that a comprehensive study of NIRS discriminatory features would yield faster detection of volitional activation. This thesis investigated the potential to discriminate between motor cortical activation and baseline activity in ten neurologically healthy individuals executing an overt and a covert motor task. It identified three time domain features exhibiting differences (p < 0.05) for the overt condition. Frequency shifts suggesting response latencies faster than previously reported were revealed in eight participants. The reliability of a measurement subset was established with intra-class correlations ranging from 0.41 to 0.88. Finally, this thesis attempted to distinguish between the two conditions in three individuals with severe motor disability. Frequency shifts were elicited over a broad scale range including high frequencies. Collectively, these results support the development of an alternative access modality for individuals with severe motor disability. |
