Previous studies have demonstrated that both visual and proprioceptive feedback play vital roles in mental practice of movements. Tactile sensation has been shown to improve with peripheral sensory stimulation via imperceptible vibratory noise by stimulating the sensorimotor cortex. With both proprioception and tactile sensation sharing the same population of posterior parietal neurons encoding within high-level spatial representations, the effect of imperceptible vibratory noise on motor imagery-based brain–computer interface is unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of this sensory stimulation via imperceptible vibratory noise applied to the index fingertip in improving motor imagery–based brain–computer interface performance. Fifteen healthy adults (nine males and six females) were studied. Each subject performed three motor imagery tasks, namely drinking, grabbing, and flexion–extension of the wrist, with and without sensory stimulation while being presented a rich immersive visual scenario through a virtual reality headset. Results showed that vibratory noise increased event-related desynchronization during motor imagery compared with no vibration. Furthermore, the task classification percentage was higher with vibration when the tasks were discriminated using a machine learning algorithm. In conclusion, subthreshold random frequency vibration affected motor imagery–related event-related desynchronization and improved task classification performance.

先前的研究表明，视觉和本体感觉反馈在运动的心理练习中都起着至关重要的作用。已证明，通过刺激感觉运动皮层，通过难以察觉的振动噪音来刺激周围感觉，可以改善触觉。由于本体感觉和触觉共享相同的后顶叶神经元群，在高级空间表征中进行编码，因此难以察觉的振动噪声对基于运动想象的脑机接口的影响尚不清楚。本研究的目的是研究通过施加到食指尖的难以察觉的振动噪声进行的感觉刺激对改善基于运动想象的脑机接口性能的影响。对十五名健康成年人（九名男性和六名女性）进行了研究。每个受试者都执行三项运动想象任务，即喝水、抓握和手腕屈伸，有或没有感官刺激，同时通过虚拟现实耳机呈现丰富的沉浸式视觉场景。结果表明，与无振动相比，振动噪声会增加运动想象过程中与事件相关的不同步。此外，当使用机器学习算法区分任务时，振动下的任务分类百分比更高。总之，阈下随机频率振动影响运动想象相关的事件相关的去同步，并提高了任务分类性能。有或没有感官刺激，同时通过虚拟现实耳机呈现丰富的沉浸式视觉场景。结果表明，与无振动相比，振动噪声会增加运动想象过程中与事件相关的不同步。此外，当使用机器学习算法区分任务时，振动下的任务分类百分比更高。总之，阈下随机频率振动影响运动想象相关的事件相关的去同步，并提高了任务分类性能。有或没有感官刺激，同时通过虚拟现实耳机呈现丰富的沉浸式视觉场景。结果表明，与无振动相比，振动噪声会增加运动想象过程中与事件相关的不同步。此外，当使用机器学习算法区分任务时，振动下的任务分类百分比更高。总之，阈下随机频率振动影响运动想象相关的事件相关的去同步，并提高了任务分类性能。当使用机器学习算法区分任务时，振动的任务分类百分比更高。总之，阈下随机频率振动影响运动想象相关的事件相关的去同步，并提高了任务分类性能。当使用机器学习算法区分任务时，振动的任务分类百分比更高。总之，阈下随机频率振动影响运动想象相关的事件相关的去同步，并提高了任务分类性能。