Major usability and technical challenges have created mistrust of the potential of brain computer interfaces used to control video games in challenging environments like healthcare. Despite several studies showing low cost commercial headsets can read the brainwave patterns of its users with great potential for long term adoption; there are limited studies showing its efficacy in concrete healthcare scenarios. In our past work, we developed FarmerKeeper, a BCI using users’ attention to control a runner videogame to support neurofeedback therapies with great usability and user experience. In this paper, beyond usability, we describe the results of a 10-week deployment study with 26 children with severe autism using FarmerKeeper as a tool to support the neurofeedback therapies of children with autism. Pre- and post-assessment evaluation indicate all children with autism improve their attention, attentional control and sustained attention. Two children with autism no longer showed attention impairments in the post-assessment evaluation. We closed discussing directions for future work and the potential benefits of this new generation of BCI videogames in healthcare scenarios.

主要的可用性和技术挑战使人们对在诸如医疗保健等挑战性环境中用于控制视频游戏的大脑计算机接口的潜力产生了怀疑。尽管有多项研究表明，低成本的商用耳机可以读取用户的脑电波图，并具有长期采用的巨大潜力；有限的研究表明其在具体医疗保健场景中的功效。在过去的工作中，我们开发了FarmerKeeper，这是一种BCI，它利用用户的注意力来控制跑步者视频游戏，从而以极大的可用性和用户体验来支持神经反馈疗法。在本文中，除可用性之外，我们还描述了一项使用FarmerKeeper作为支持自闭症儿童神经反馈疗法的工具，对26名重度自闭症儿童进行为期10周的部署研究的结果。评估前后的评估表明，所有自闭症儿童的注意力，注意力控制和持续注意力均得到改善。两个自闭症儿童在评估后的评估中不再表现出注意力障碍。我们结束了讨论未来工作的方向以及这种新一代BCI电子游戏在医疗保健方面的潜在利益的讨论。