An OpenBCI-based, low-cost, virtual reality brain-computer interface for severe stroke upper limb motor recovery

Your doctor can explain which of the various BCI interfaces works with efficacy percentages and which ones are in their hospital.

An OpenBCI-based, low-cost, virtual reality brain-computer interface for severe stroke upper limb motor recovery

1. Introduction
“Stroke is one of the leading causes of adult disability worldwide, and despite intensive physiotherapy, up to 2/3 of stroke survivors never fully recover [1]. In particular, individuals with severe motor impairments following stroke, who are unable to move their arm or hand, show the poorest outcomes, as they are unable to actively participate in traditional rehabilitation [1]. However, emerging research has examined ways to facilitate activation of the damaged motor cortex in the absence of volitional movement. Two primary ways include: 1) the action observation network (AON), and 2) neurofeedback from brain computer interfaces (BCIs). First, the AON consists of motor-related regions in the brain that are active during both the performance of an action and simply during the observation of an action, making it a feasible way to stimulate cortical motor regions in the absence of volitional movement [2], [3]. The AON is active when stroke patients observe a limb that corresponds to their own affected limb [3] and can lead to improvements in individuals with severe motor impairments [4]. Second, BCI-based neurofeedback is typically defined as sensory feedback of biological activity in the brain (e.g., as measured with electroencephalography; EEG) that is used to control a computerized device (e.g., movement of an object on a computer screen). BCIs for severe stroke attempt to ‘close the loop’ between motor commands and sensory feedback, but often employ less biologically-relevant feedback, such as a moving a ball or a thermometer, which reflects brain activity.”

Xinyu Tan, Yi Li, Yuan Gao, “Combining brain-computer interface with virtual reality: Review and prospect”, Computer and Communications (ICCC) 2017 3rd IEEE International Conference on, pp. 514-518, 2017.