Non-invasive Modulation of Brain Activity During Human-Machine Interactions

Cognitive Neuroscience investigates how the brain generates cognitive functions such as language, memory, vision, that allow an organism to efficiently interact with the environment. In recent years, the understanding of the mechanisms underlying cognitive functions has been boosted by the development of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (NIBS). Such techniques use technologies that temporarily and painlessly modulate brain activity, without needing surgical intervention, thus providing a safe and accessible mean to explore and influence brain functions. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly present NIBS techniques and to discuss examples of how healthy human brain functions can be modulated in order to alter, positively or negatively, typical behavior. Coupling NIBS with neuroimaging techniques that allow to non-invasively record brain activity can be used to perform closed-loop stimulations, adapting stimulation parameters to the individual, time-varying brain activity. Present and future NIBS applications to human-machine interactions in various domains are presented and discussed.