Attentional tasks in which the P3 can be used as a marker seem to offer a good chance of success for single-trial analysis. They highlighted in turn rows and columns of a matrix of characters on a computer screen and compared P3 amplitudes averaged over several repetitions to decide which of these positions was being attended to. Normal subjects were able to attain an output rate of 2.3 characters per minute. P3 latency and waveform were cited as major factors in this decision problem, though no analysis of network weights was done to suggest additional or alternative factors. Seeing some success in the application of ANNs to single-trial EEG analysis, we undertook to bring this method to our own population of autistic subjects.
Some autistic people are mute or have difficulty using spoken language purposively.
ANN analyses may shed light on this question. Also, in cases of impairment in spoken language, successful single-trial analysis using ANNs may pave the way toward a mental prosthesis that would allow people with autism to communicate without much resort to human facilitators or the controversial technique of facilitated communication.