Effects of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) rehabilitation robot on upper limb function in chronic stroke patients - A randomized controlled trial

Research Objectives: To investigate whether a BCI based stroke rehabilitation training can improve upper limb function.

Design: This study is a randomized controlled trial.

Setting: This study was conducted at the National Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Korea.

Participants: 25 chronic stroke patients were identified who met the following criteria; Adult hemiplegic patients with lesions confined to one side, who must have had a primary onset stroke, who are more than 6 months after the onset of the stroke, and who with the cognitive ability to understand the instructions of the task.

Interventions: All participants conducted 20 sessions of RecoveriX PRO task for 4 weeks. There are two modes of intervention. In calibration mode, the individual's EEG is obtained when imagining the movement of the right and left hand. In training mode, FES is only given to participants if the right/left hand motor imagery is accurate based on the calibration value. After calibration mode, an experimental group receives training mode twice. However, the control group received calibration mode 3 times without training mode. They do BCI with FES independently from their motor image.

Main Outcome Measures: To assess the motor function of the upper extremity, we used the upper extremity of the FMA (Fugl-Meyer Assessment), Medical Research Council (MRC), range of motion (ROM) in wrist extension, and Stroke Impact Scale (SIS).

Results: In MRC of wrist extensor, there were significant association changes from time1 to time 3 (p-value = 0.045). However, changes in FMA, ROM, and SIS were not significantly associated.

Conclusions: The findings of this study were to provide evidence for the importance of neurofeedback by using BCI rehabilitation. Our results suggest that BCI plays a significant role in the MRC of wrist extensor in stroke patients.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.