A Wearable Mindfulness Brain–Computer Interface for Alleviating Car Sickness
bioRxiv – September 25, 2024
Source: medRxiv/bioRxiv/arXiv
Summary
Car sickness affects many travelers, but a new wearable device offers hope. This innovative brain-computer interface uses AI to guide users through mindfulness meditation, helping them shift focus away from discomfort. In trials, over 84% of participants reported reduced symptoms, marking a promising non-drug solution for this common issue.
Abstract
Car sickness, an enormous vehicular travel challenge, affects a significant pro-portion of the population. Pharmacological interventions are limited by adverse side effects, and effective nonpharmacological alternatives remain to be identified. Here, we introduce a novel closed-loop, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven, wear-able mindfulness brain–computer interface (BCI) to alleviate car sickness. As the user performs mindfulness meditation with a wearable headband, the BCI col-lects and analyses electroencephalography (EEG) data via a convolutional neural network to assess the user’s mindfulness state and provide real-time audiovisual feedback. This approach might efficiently redirect the user’s attention from phys-iological discomfort towards BCI-based mindfulness practices, thereby mitigating car sickness symptoms. The efficacy of the mindfulness BCI was rigorously evalu-ated in two real-world experiments, namely, short and long car rides, with a large cohort of more than 100 participants susceptible to car sickness. Remarkably, over 84% of the participants rated the mindfulness BCI intervention as effective, with significant reductions in car sickness severity, particularly in individuals with severe symptoms. Furthermore, EEG data analysis revealed prefrontal beta relative power as a neurobiological signature of car sickness, which, in conjunc-tion with attention shift theory and sensory conflict theory, provided mechanistic insights into the efficacy of the mindfulness BCI for alleviating car sickness. This study proposed the first nonpharmacological, wearable and effective car sickness intervention method and system with the potential to transform the travel expe-riences of hundreds of millions of people suffering from car sickness, which also represents a new application of BCI technology.