Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MoveAGAIN (Movement restoration with Adaptive EEG And Immersive Neurofeedback)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2018-01-01 do 2019-12-31
On a more personal level, most people know at least one person who had a stroke. Most people have also seen the effects that stroke can have on speech, gait, hand/arm function and other voluntary movements. The realization that stroke usually leaves people with permanent disability – even after therapy that consumes time, money, and hope – can be very frustrating. This is what inspired us to develop the MoveAGAIN project.
Our overall goal is to help stroke patients and their family by providing a new approach that can supplement existing therapy approaches with direct brain stimulation to improve motor function. Our objectives are to: (1) modify existing tools to monitor EEG activity during therapy to include brain stimulation via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); and (2) validate these tools in real-world studies with patients.
Aiming at these objectives, we first modified the existing brain-computer interface (BCI) system from GTEC. Further, we implemented hardware and software for brain stimulation tools. Then we developed the protocols to combine the modified BCI system and tDCS/TMS. Finally, these tools were validated on healthy and patients. The results show that, together with BCI, brain stimulation techniques may accelerate the rehabilitation process of patients following stroke.