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Clinical Neuroprosthetics and Brain Interaction LabCNBI Lab

 

 

Sinergia

New Treatments for Induction of Motor Plasticity after Stroke

Recent progress has enabled an improved understanding of how the brain recovers from motor impairment during the first months after stroke. The integrity of fiber tracts connecting movement areas of the brain with spine and muscles (i.e., of the so-called cortico-spinal tract, CST) and repair processes around the damaged brain cortex were found to key factors for motor improvement within the first 3 months. Furthermore, new treatment approaches have become available that can influence neural processes that may be important for recovery. Hence, we can now start to apply treatments which induce specific repair processes in patient subgroups that are likely to benefit. This has the potential to obtain causal and customised treatment of motor handicap.

This project proposes to test two therapy concepts resulting from recent advances in the understanding of motor plasticity in patients with subacute stroke.

In a first component of the project, we will perform non-invasive stimulation by applying a small direct current to the scalp of patients with stroke (a technique called “transcranial direct current stimulation”). This treatment will be tested in patients with light to moderate motor handicap and with at least partial integrity of the CST. We hypothesize that if this treatment is started within 4 weeks after stroke onset, it enhances repair processes in the cortex and leads to improved clinical motor recovery.

In a second part of the project, we will test a treatment in patients with severe motor handicap and severe damage to the CST. A brain-computer interface system will detect when patients activate their movement areas of the brain by trying to move their paralyzed arm. This will trigger an electrical stimulation of the arm muscles and lead to a movement. We hypothesize that, if this treatment is applied within 4 weeks after stroke, it helps restore CST fibers and improve recovery of patients with severe handicap.

We hope that our approach can influence more selectively and efficiently repair processes that are critical for recovery and that it leads to robust effects on motor recovery even in patients with severe motor deficits.

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Latest News

  • A Jolt of Innovation for Brain-Computer Interfaces
  • Satyam Kumar Successfully Defended his PhD Thesis. Congratulations!!
  • Hussein Alawieh Successfully Defended his PhD Thesis. Congratulations!!
  • Minsu Zhang recipient of the 2024 KSEA-KUSCO Graduate Scholarship
  • Nature Medicine: The Future of Brain–computer Interfaces in Medicine

Latest Publications

Alawieh H, Liu D, Madera J, Kumar S, Racz FS, Fey AM, Del R Millán J. Electrical Spinal Cord Stimulation Promotes Focal Sensorimotor Activation that Accelerates Brain-computer Interface Skill Learning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jun 17;122(24):e2418920122.

Racz FS, Kumar S, Kaposzta Z, Alawieh H, Liu DH, Liu R, Czoch A, Mukli P, Millán JDR. Combining Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis with Riemannian Geometry-based Classification for Improved Brain-computer Interface Performance. Front Neurosci. 2024 Mar 14;18:1271831.

Kumar S, Alawieh H, Racz FS, Fakhreddine R, Millán JDR. Transfer Learning Promotes Acquisition of Individual BCI Skills.PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024, page076.

Iwane F, Billard A, Millán JDR. Inferring Individual Evaluation Criteria for Reaching Trajectories with Obstacle Avoidance from EEG Signals. Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 17;13(1):20163.

S. Kumar S. Kumar, D. H. Liu, F. S. Racz, M. Retana, S. Sharma, F. Iwane, B. P. Murphy, R. O’Keeffe, S. F. Atashzar, F. Alambeigi, J. del R. Millán. CogniDaVinci: Towards Estimating Mental Workload Modulated by Visual Delays During Telerobotic Surgery – An EEG-based Analysis. 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 2023, pp. 6789-6794.


For a complete list of publications go to our Publications page!

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