I don't think this is the first ever non-invasive bci. I recall decades ago there was a BCI where you could control between left and right literally by activating the appropriate hemisphere and triggering a relative potentiometer.

Extremely crude, but it worked. IIRC the instructions were "to go left, think 'go left'"; "to go right, relax". After some number of sessions (I think I remember it being "a lot") the user's brain would automatically do the correct thing.