BCI applied to neurorehabilitation

Abstract

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems are novel and emerging technologies that allow a person to interact with the environment without any muscular activity using only his or her brain. Currently, there are various applications of neurorehabilitation, which have emerged from this technology. These are based mainly on the performance of motor imagery tasks and visualization of movement, which encourage a process of neuroplasticity. Virtual reality (VR) is an innovative approach that is used in numerous neurorehabilitation applications. Several studies have combined BCIs and VR to develop applications, which allow a person to navigate in virtual environments or to play video games, among others. Some studies have been focused on neurorehabilitation applications, such as applications that allow a person to control virtual limbs. However, nowadays neurorehabilitation has become essential to our society, and this resulted in a substantial increase in BCI research directed toward this field. This chapter will introduce the current state of the art in BCI systems developed for neurorehabiliation applications, among which are innovative studies that make use of VR.