Brain-Machine Interface and Functional Electrical Stimulation for Cycling Increases Corticospinal Excitability in a Stroke Patient: A Case Study

Abstract

Various experimental strategies using brain-machine interfaces, both for the upper limb and the lower limb, have managed to generate plastic changes in the nervous system aiming to rehabilitate diseases involving movement restrictions. Due to the variability in the results of previous studies and the lack of experiments with associative facilitation, more interventions are necessary with functional tasks, involving different lower limb muscles, trying to rehabilitate patients with these pathologies. In this study, we present data of a stroke patient in which an intervention with a cycling task was studied. The intervention consists in a brain machine interface, which has been integrated driving a functional electrical stimulation device. Increases in corticospinal excitability of both Tibialis anterior muscles of the patient were observed after the intervention. Such results could imply that the brain machine interface would be behind these changes, which would help to rehabilitate these patients.