Neurofeedback training for cognitive and motor function rehabilitation in chronic stroke: two case reports

Useless with no protocol so survivors can present it to their therapists for use in recovery. 

Neurofeedback training for cognitive and motor function rehabilitation in chronic stroke: two case reports

Wenya Nan^1*, Ana P. Dias² and Agostinho C. Da Rosa²

• ¹Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, China
• ²Department of Bioengineering, Higher Technical Institute, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Stroke is a debilitating neurological condition which usually results in the abnormal electrical brain activity and the impairment of sensation, motor or cognition functions. In this context, neurofeedback training, i.e., a non-invasive and relatively low cost technique that contributes to neuroplasticity and behavioral performance, might be promising for stroke rehabilitation. We intended to explore neurofeedback training on a 63-year-old male patient and a 77-year-old female patient with chronic stroke. Both of them had suffered from an ischemic stroke for rather long period (more than three years) and could not gain further improvement by traditional therapy. The neurofeedback training was designed to enhance alpha activity by 15 sessions distributed over two months, for the purpose of overall cognitive improvement and hopefully also motor function improvement for the female patient. We found that the two patients showed alpha enhancement during NFT compared to eyes open baseline within most sessions. Furthermore, both patients reduced their anxiety and depression level. The male patient showed an evolution in speech pattern in terms of naming, sentences completion and verbal fluency, while the female patient improved functionality of the march. These results suggested that alpha neurofeedback training could provide a spectrum of improvements, providing new hope for chronic stroke patients who could not gain further improvements through traditional therapies.

Keywords: alpha, Neurofeedback, chronic stroke, Rehabilitation, Cognition

Received: 02 Apr 2019; Accepted: 11 Jul 2019.

Edited by:
Paola Marangolo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Reviewed by:
Jamuna Rajan, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, India
Reza Rostami, University of Tehran, Iran  

Copyright: © 2019 Nan, Dias and Da Rosa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dr. Wenya Nan, Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China, wynan1985@126.com