Saket Parayil

Mapping the Moment of Attention: Scalp Topography as an Inductive Bias for Single-Trial P300 Detection in Autism

Started Dec. 18, 2025

Abstract or project description

Joint attention, following someone else's focus to share it, is often challenging for autistic individuals and is closely tied to language and social development. Brain-computer interfaces can measure it directly by detecting the P300, a brain response that appears when a person notices the object someone cued. This project converts EEG signals into sequences of scalp "maps" and trains a neural network to spot the P300 from a single flash. The model caught about 3 in 4 true responses, showing that spatial brain maps carry useful information and pointing toward shorter, easier BCI training sessions.