Robot-Assisted Mindfulness Practice: Analysis of Neurophysiological Responses and Affective State Change

Mindfulness is the state of paying attention to the present moment on purpose and meditation is the technique to obtain this state. This study aims to develop a robot assistant that facilitates mindfulness training by means of a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system. To achieve this goal, we collected EEG signals from two groups of subjects engaging in a meditative vs. non-meditative human-robot interaction (HRI) and evaluated cerebral hemispheric asymmetry, which is recognized as a well-defined indicator of emotional states. Moreover, using self-reported affective states, we strived to explain asymmetry changes based on pre- and post-experiment mood alterations. We found that unlike earlier meditation studies, the fronto-central activations in alpha and theta frequency bands were not influenced by robot-guided mindfulness practice, however there was a significantly greater right-sided activity in the occipital gamma band of Meditation group, which is attributed to increased sensory awareness and open monitoring. In addition, there was a significant main effect of Time on participant's self-reported affect, indicating an improved mood after interaction with the robot regardless of the interaction type. Our results suggest that EEG responses during robot-guided meditation hold promise in real-time detection and neurofeedback of mindful state to the user, however the experienced neurophysiological changes may differ based on the meditation practice and recruited tools. This study is the first to report EEG changes during mindfulness practice with a robot. We believe that our findings driven from an ecologically valid setting, can be used in development of future BCI systems that are integrated with social robots for health applications.