The Research Problem
Neurological disorders and age-related motor decline are leading causes of long-term disability, significantly reducing the quality of life for millions of individuals globally. Neurological impairments such as stroke, which affects a large portion of the adult population worldwide, are particularly prevalent in countries like Mexico, China, New Zealand, and Canada, leaving over 85% of survivors with motor deficits. In addition, older adults often experience reduced mobility due to natural aging, leading to a loss of independence. Current rehabilitation strategies, such as physical therapy and robot-assisted rehabilitation, provide limited benefits as they do not promote the brain’s neuroplastic mechanisms. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), on the other hand, have shown potential by decoding brain activity to actuate rehabilitation devices, but they fail to provide brain electrical stimulation to effectively promote cortical reorganization. Moreover, BCI systems commonly do not use neural biomarkers for tracking motor improvements.
Research Design
The projects will be executed in several stages. First, BCI system design and neural decoding investigation. This involves designing the BCI system and exploring methods for decoding neural information. AI models will be developed for real-time neural signal decoding, and control algorithms will be designed to trigger stimulation. Then, BCI system integration and initial tests. The BCI system will be integrated and tested in controlled laboratory settings. AI-driven neural decoding algorithms will be implemented with the stimulation device. System functionality, usability, and safety will be assessed. Subsequently, BCI system evaluation with healthy adults. Participants will be recruited to evaluate the system’s performance. The experimental protocol will be submitted to the institutional ethics committee. Experiments will be conducted, and data will be collected for analysis. Finally, data analysis and system evaluation. The collected data will be analyzed to assess the system’s performance and potential clinical outcomes. A comprehensive proof-of-concept evaluation will be completed. WUN collaborators will contribute to different tasks at these stages according to their expertise.
Project Objectives
This project aims to develop and test through controlled experiments a brain-computer interface system to deliver brain electrical stimulation designed to deliver the neuromotor rehabilitation of survivors of neurological impairments such as stroke or of older people with limited moility caused by natural aging process. This system will integrate the decoding of neural information from non-invasive electroencephalographic neural signals with AI algorithms and the delivery of non-invasive electrical stimulation to the brain motor-related areas. The purpose of the system is to target the cortical motor circuits to promote neuroplasticity, which is crucial for motor recovery.