  Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) make possible to interact with the external
environment by decoding the mental intention of individuals. BCIs can therefore
be used to address basic neuroscience questions but also to unlock a variety of
applications from exoskeleton control to neurofeedback (NFB) rehabilitation. In
general, BCI usability critically depends on the ability to comprehensively
characterize brain functioning and correctly identify the user s mental state.
To this end, much of the efforts have focused on improving the classification
algorithms taking into account localized brain activities as input features.
Despite considerable improvement BCI performance is still unstable and, as a
matter of fact, current features represent oversimplified descriptors of brain
functioning. In the last decade, growing evidence has shown that the brain
works as a networked system composed of multiple specialized and spatially
distributed areas that dynamically integrate information. While more complex,
looking at how remote brain regions functionally interact represents a grounded
alternative to better describe brain functioning. Thanks to recent advances in
network science, i.e. a modern field that draws on graph theory, statistical
mechanics, data mining and inferential modelling, scientists have now powerful
means to characterize complex brain networks derived from neuroimaging data.
Notably, summary features can be extracted from these networks to
quantitatively measure specific organizational properties across a variety of
topological scales. In this topical review, we aim to provide the
state-of-the-art supporting the development of a network theoretic approach as
a promising tool for understanding BCIs and improve usability.
