Design of a Mobile Brain/Body Imaging experiment in a real-life environment with multimodal data acquisition and analysis

Mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) is a new and challenging imaging technique which is becoming very interesting in research in order to study cognitive processes involved in locomotion and other everyday tasks. The idea is to have multiple data streams coming from different acquisition systems (multimodal), synchronized to each other, that can be used to analyse brain activity while subjects are freely moving and interacting with the environment. First, there are several technical challenges to overcome in order to move outside of the lab and be able to acquire brain signals while the subject is moving and facing external distractions. Second, the integration of body imaging and brain signals requires particular attention on the synchronization process. Last, the possibility of having real-time multimodal synchronized data opens up to a lot of applications in the fields of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), motor rehabilitation and artificial limbs control. The rationale behind every MoBI application is the importance of understanding how the mind works during everyday tasks, and not in lab-constrained environments.