Exploring the Relationship Between Imitated and Associated Mechanism on Performance of Visual Imagery Brain-Computer Interface

Visual Imagery (VI) can be defined as the manipulation of visual information derived from memory rather than perception. Currently, the brain responses underlying imitation and associative VI are not clear. In this study, we explore the differences from imitation to associative VI on the brain responses based on EEG signals. In this study, eight participants were instructed to observe visual cues from three predefined images or characters (tree, computer, or sphere), and then imagine the same cues. The results indicate that there is a significant difference in power intensity among electrode channels in the occipital lobe, posterior parietal lobe, and temporal lobe during the imagination phase between imitative tasks and associative tasks, as revealed by t-tests (p < 0.05, rejecting the null hypothesis). Overall, imitation mechanisms and associative mechanisms represent the short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) features of objects. This study addresses a crucial research gap in VI, as there is currently a scarcity of formal simultaneous comparisons in the existing literature.