Development of a bedside stroke rehabilitation system using a brain-machine interface

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K17707
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 59010:Rehabilitation science-related
• Research Institution: Kitami Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Hashimoto Yasunari 北見工業大学, 工学部, 准教授 (80610253)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 脳波 / ニューロフィードバック / リハビリテーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Brain-machine interface (BMI) technology has been attracting attention as a technology that will bring innovation to stroke rehabilitation. However, there are still many issues to be solved before reaching the goal of practical use of BMI for stroke patients. In particular, there is a need to make the BMI system usable by non-specialist EEG researchers (usability issue), and to optimize the amount of training, such as the appropriate frequency and duration for single training session. In this study, we aimed to solve these issues. As a result of the study, we were succeeded to show that four patients 7-24 days after stroke onset could be trained safely in bed, albeit in a small patient group.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Free Research Field

リハビリテーション工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

急性期に対するBMI訓練は、筋活動を必要とせず、本研究で開発したようなベッドサイドでも使用可能なBMIシステムであれば、早期のリハビリテーションを開始できるという点で、今後の発展次第ではBMIの有用性を示すことができる。そのためには訓練前後の上肢の機能改善のより詳細な分析や適切な対照群の設定、被験者数の拡大、長期のフォローアップが必要となるだろう。本研究は対照群のない短期間の予備的試験であったが、BMIシステムの使用可能性や安全性を示すことで、今後の長期的な、無作為化比較試験または大規模BMI介入試験を促進する結果を得られたと言える。