ERPs contributing to classification in the ”P300” BCI

Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) provide a non-muscular communication channel for people with severe motor impairment. The most commonly used BCI for communication is the so called P300-Speller that received its name from the event-related potential (ERP) P300 which is elicited by the speller (oddball) paradigm. Several researchers reported that it is not only the P300 but also other ERPs that are classified with this type of BCI. This study thus, aims at contributing to the discussion by assessing the ERPs which contribute most to classification in a large sample size of N=51 participants. Our results indicate that almost 30% of all participants reached highest determination coefficients with the N200, not with the P300. Furthermore it is often a combination of both potentials that is picked up for classification. Therefore the ”P300”-BCI is truely a BCI that is controlled by various ERPs, especially the N200 and P300.