Mu wave
[1] These patterns as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), or electrocorticography (ECoG), repeat at a frequency of 7.5–12.5 (and primarily 9–11) Hz, and are most prominent when the body is physically at rest.
Researchers such as V. S. Ramachandran and colleagues have suggested that this is a sign that the mirror neuron system is involved in mu rhythm suppression,[2][3] although others disagree.
With the emergence of BCI systems, clinicians hope to give the severely physically disabled population new methods of communication and a means to manipulate and navigate their environments.
[3] Tests in both monkeys (using invasive measuring techniques) and humans (using EEG and fMRI) have found that these mirror neurons not only fire during basic motor tasks, but also have components that deal with intention.
This is important because the ability to imitate plays a vital role in the development of motor skills, tool use, and understanding causal information through social interaction.
[5] This tendency for changes in degree of desynchronization, rather than actual changes in frequency, becomes the measure for mu wave development throughout adulthood, although the most changes take place during the first year of life.
A single cause of autism has not been identified, but the mu wave and mirror neuron system have been studied specifically for their role in the disorder.
[6][16] This finding has led some scientists, notably V. S. Ramachandran and colleagues, to view autism as disordered understanding of other individuals' intentions and goals due to problems with the mirror neuron system.
[2][6] fMRI activation magnitudes in the inferior frontal gyrus increase with age in people with autism, but not in typically developing individuals.
[17] Scientists believe the inferior frontal gyrus is one of the main neural correlates with the mirror neuron system in humans and is often related to deficits associated with autism.
This technology has the potential to help include people with near-total or total paralysis, such as those with tetraplegia (quadriplegia) or advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); BCIs are intended to help them to communicate or even move objects such as motorized wheelchairs, neuroprostheses, or robotic grasping tools.
Users of such an interface are trained in visualizing movements, typically of the foot, hand, and/or tongue, which are each in different locations on the cortical homunculus and thus distinguishable by an electroencephalograph (EEG) or electrocorticograph (ECoG) recording of electrical activity over the motor cortex.
[8][21] In this method, computers monitor for a typical pattern of mu wave ERD contralateral to the visualized movement combined with event-related synchronization (ERS) in the surrounding tissue.
[8][21][23] Some researchers have found that the feedback from virtual reality games is particularly effective in giving the user tools to improve control of his or her mu wave patterns.
