Closed-loop afferent electrical stimulation for recovery of hand function in individuals with motor incomplete spinal injury: Early clinical results

Christopher J. Schildt, Sarah H. Thomas, Elizabeth S. Powell, Lumy Sawaki, Sridhar Sunderam

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Afferent electrical stimulation is known to augment the effect of rehabilitative therapy through use-dependent cortical plasticity. Experiments pairing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) have shown a timing-dependent effect on motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude suggesting that PNS applied in closed-loop (CL) mode could augment this effect through positive reinforcement. We present early results from a clinical trial in which an EEG brain-machine interface (BMI) was used to apply PNS to two subjects in response to motor intent detected from sensorimotor cortex in a cue-driven hand grip task. Both subjects had stable incomplete cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) with impaired upper limb function commensurate with the injury level. Twelve sessions of CL-PNS applied over a 4-6 week period yielded results suggesting improved hand grip strength and increased task-related modulation of the EEG in one hand of both subjects, and increased TMS-measured motor map area in one. These observations suggest that rehabilitation using such interactive therapies could benefit affected individuals.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
Pages1552-1555
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781457702204
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 13 2016
Event38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016 - Orlando, United States
Duration: Aug 16 2016Aug 20 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
Volume2016-October
ISSN (Print)1557-170X

Conference

Conference38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOrlando
Period8/16/168/20/16

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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