When interacting with computers or machines, users almost always use their hands. This kind of human-computer interaction, however, severely limits human's freedom to communicate with the machine. Over the years, many attempts have been made to develop technologies that include other information channels used for communication, for example, speech or gestures to make human-computer interaction (HCI) more intuitive. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging technologies allow the direct interface of machines with the human brain. This ability is made possible through brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and special sensors that can monitor physical processes that occur within the human brain. In BCIs, users explicitly manipulate their brain activity instead of using motor movements in order to produce brain waves that can be used to control computers or machines. The development of efficient BCIs and its implementation in hybrid systems that combine well-established methods in HCI and brain control will not only transform the way we perform everyday tasks, but also improve the life quality of patients with physical disabilities, especially to those who suffer from devastating neuromuscular injuries and neurodegenerative diseases leading to paralysis and inability to communicate.

We invite authors to submit original research and review articles that explore all aspects of BCIs. Potential topics, include, but are not limited to:

• BCI applications for patients with permanent and situational physical or neurological disabilities, such as paralyzed patients with spinal cord injuries, stroke patients, and autistics
• BCI applications for healthy users with emphasis on games, entertainment computing, and emotion recognition
• Neuroplasticity induced by brain-computer interactions
• Sensing technologies, such as invasive BCI sensors and EEG-based navigation systems suitable for BCI applications
• Data-processing techniques for mapping the raw signals and related features to high-level concepts; artifact rejection techniques suitable for BCI applications
• Advances in animal BCIs research
• Software tools for BCIs research

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: