BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE AND FUNCTIONAL ELECTRICAL STIMULATION FOR UPPER LIMB REHABILITATION AFTER STROKE

We present a case report consisting of a 64-year old man with chronic severe left hemiplegia who received an intervention to restore reaching movements using a brain-computer interface combined with functional electrical stimulation therapy. The brain-computer interface was designed to be triggered by power decreases in the beta (13 Hz to 30 Hz) frequency range of a single EEG channel at location Fz of the 10-20 electrode placement system. The electrical stimulation system was designed to facilitate reaching forward, to the opposite (right) knee, opposite shoulder, mouth, and also lateral reaching. Each phase of the movement (i.e., reaching and retrieving) was activated by the brain-computer interface. After 40 90-minute sessions, delivered three times a week, the participant's arm function showed a clinically meaningful improvement (6 points in the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Upper Extremity sub-score). No other intervention completed by the participant prior to this study had produced any functional change.