Gehirn-Maschine-Interfaces (Brain-Machine Interfaces, BMI) zur Rehabilitation von Schlaganfall

BMI translates a brain signal to an external device without any motor involvement. BMIs have been used for rehabilitation of chronic stroke in combination with output devices such as functional electrical stimulation (FES), robots and exosceletons as a neuroprosthetic device, and physiotherapy. In addition, neurofeedback and biofeedback (usually using electromyographic (EMG) feedback) shows great promise as a rehabilitation strategy. However, very few adequately controlled studies with large enough patient samples are available, most report proof-of-principle strategies. The combination of BMI with behaviorally oriented physiotherapy to generalize BMI-treatment effects to the home environment proved to be the most efficient non-invasive rehabilitation strategy for severely paralyzed stroke victims. Future directions should test invasive.