Relevance. The musical activity of a professional pianist has been little studied by objective methods. For most musicians, the task of sight-reading causes a difficulty in both academic and professional activities. Understanding the visual-motor mechanisms and cognitive processes involved in the implementation of sight-reading can help musical pedagogical practice. There are few sight-reading studies and most of them were conducted in conditions far from the real ones. This work is interdisciplinary that involved the interests of musical pedagogy, psychology and physiology.

Objective. On the base of the cognitive task of sight-reading music in conditions close to reality to explore the interaction of visual-motor parameters and their relationship with the parameters of the working memory.

Methods. 55 subjects aged 18–25 years (30 pianists and 25 non-pianists) were tested using the OS and N-back method to determine individual parameters of the working memory, as well as to determine the time of a complex visual-motor response. Eye tracking method was utilized for eye movement recording when the pianists sight read sheet of notes.

Results.The visual-motor performance parameters (eye hand span, errors and regressions) differ significantly at sight-reading musical fragments of varying complexity. Compared with the literature data we obtained opposite results for value of the eye hand span depending on the complexity of the musical text. We revealed correlations between the visual-motor parameters and the working memory parameters as well as their dependence on the quality of performance.

Conclusion. Objectively recorded visual-motor parameters complexly interact with each other. The mastery of sight-reading music of professional pianists closely related with individual parameters of the working memory.

Relevance. It is one of very important tasks of modern neuroscience to investigate the psychological and psychophysiological mechanisms of body orientation processes. Particularly due to the growth in use of visualization and simulation technologies (virtual reality, projection displays, aircraft simulators). The application of such systems is often associated with mismatch between different sensory signals. One of the phenomena resulting from this mismatch is the self-motion illusion – the perception of own movement by a motionless person observing a moving visual stimulus occupying a large part of field of view.

Objective. Investigation the role of optokinetic nystagmus in self-motion illusion. The virtual optokinetic drum rotating at 30, 45 and 60 deg/s was used as a stimulus. The drum was presented using CAVE virtual reality system. 17 healthy participants took part in the experiment. The slow phases of nystagmus during self-motion illusion perception were analyzed. 

Results. The more the drum rotation speed, the more the illusion intensity and slow phases duration. Also the disturbances in slow phase realization led to increase the illusion intensity. The restoration of nystagmus reduced the illusion. Thus it was found that optokinetic nystagmus is a component of a human space orientation system and the nystagmus also adjusts the illusion perception. The effectiveness of application of CAVE virtual reality system in complicated cognitive processes investigation was proved.

Relevance. Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is widely employed in studies focused on possibility of substitution of human verbal and motor communication channels when such channels are lost due to stroke or trauma. One of the most promising examples of BCI technology is P300 BCI – a system based on P300 component of visual evoked potential. Visual stimulation plays a key role in P300 BCI concept, and it is thus important to explore the influence of visual stimuli environment on user’s eye movements and BCI performance.

Objective. The objective was to explore the influence of the main components of P300 BCI visual environment, namely matrix stimuli size and spacing, on the movements of user's eyes during typing, the accuracy of typing, and the amplitude and latency of P300 component.

Methods. Sixteen healthy subjects were recruited for the study. Each subject participated in five experimental sessions, where P300 BCI matrix stimuli size and spacing varied from 1.22 and 0.73 to 2.43 and 1.45 degrees of visual angle. During each experimental session, subjects were typing in a certain text sequence using the BCI while their eye movements and EEG were being recorded.

Results. We found that the stimuli size significantly affected certain characteristics of user’s eye movements. The stimuli size and spacing, however, had no significant effect on the accuracy of the typing and the amplitude and latency of P300 component.

Conclusions. The results of the study can prove to be beneficial to the development of efficient visual stimuli environments for P300 BCI.