Functional electrical stimulation therapy (FEST) can engage individuals with impaired motor functions into task-oriented exercises. With the recent attempts to further the effects of FEST for the recovery of upper limb motor function, this work was focused on evaluating the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a brain-computer interface (BCI) controlled FEST. In this new intervention, the BCI monitors the patient’s brain activity during therapy, and it triggers the stimulation when it detects an imagined or attempted movement. A single-channel BCI for clinical application was designed, developed, and integrated with FEST for arm and hand rehabilitation. The feasibility of delivering BCI-FEST intervention was evaluated in a 80-session case study involving an individual with chronic stroke. The new intervention was safe, without adverse events, and the participant experienced meaningful improvements (not observed in preceding interventions). Motivated by the preliminary promising results in the stroke case study, BCI-FEST was evaluated in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). An interventional BCI-FEST study involved five individuals with subacute SCI. The new BCI-FEST was safe and feasible and with a setup time of 11 minutes, comparable to other technology-enhanced interventions. Regarding the clinical outcome measures, all participants demonstrated increased scores in observational assessments of motor function, while three out of five participants demonstrated increased scores in self-reported assessments of independence.

Lazar I. Jovanovic is a researcher interested in the recovery and improvement of human movement. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Simon Fraser University working on a Mitacs-funded project in collaboration with Lululemon.

 

By his undergraduate training, Lazar is an electrical engineer; and his interest in human physiology and medicine has led him to pursue doctoral studies in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Drs. Cesar Marquez-Chin and Milos Popovic. He investigated the feasibility of integrating brain-computer interface and functional electrical stimulation into the clinical rehabilitation practice for the recovery of upper limb movement after neurological injuries like stroke and spinal cord injury. His work has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals as well as recognized and awarded at international conferences.

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