A study on distinction of unfamiliar information using NIRS

Recent developments in functional neuroimaging technologies have given us a better understanding of the activation of sites in the brain. These technologies have been applied to brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). These technologies have been used in medicine and economics and for decision-making in business, thereby leading to the emergence of new fields of neuroeconomics and neuromarketing. In the current study, we investigate the possibility that brain activity distinguishes unfamiliar information. Typical applications are that a user who encounters unfamiliar information while browsing a website can automatically obtain the details of this information through BCIs without having to perform a web search. In this study, we use near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system that acquires data in real time in order to measure brain activity. The results of our experiment indicated that our proposed method allows for the distinguishing of unfamiliar information with about 80% accuracy, as demonstrated in the performance of 60 tasks. So, it is indeed possible to develop a BCI that can distinguish unfamiliar information.