BCI-Based Facilitation of Cortical Activity Associated to Gait Onset After Single Event Multi-level Surgery in Cerebral Palsy

• Published in: Brain-Computer Interface Research pp. 99 - 110
• Main Authors: Ignacio Serrano, J., del Castillo, M. D., Bayón, C., Ramírez, O., Lerma Lara, S., Martínez-Caballero, I., Rocon, E.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2017; Springer International Publishing
• Series: SpringerBriefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Subjects: Cerebral palsy; Gait neurorehabilitation; Medical physics; Neuromodulation; Neurosciences; Single-event multilevel surgery; User interface design & usability; Virtual reality
• ISBN: 9783319571317; 3319571311
• ISSN: 2191-8112; 2191-8120
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57132-4_8

Motor rehabilitation strategies by means of neuro-modulation paradigms, taking advantage of the motor predictive characteristics of the electroencephalographic signal, are currently subject to extensive research. Such rehabilitation strategies follow a top-down approach in which targeted neurophysiological changes in the central nervous system are expected to induce functional improvement. However, such approach presents a set of specific limitations and barriers in cerebral palsy patients, given that they typically do not have a normal gait and have suffered abnormal brain development. These limitations get even more critical when Single-Event Multilevel Surgery (SEMLS) is performed. After that procedure, surgery patients must re-learn the gait patterns according to a new biomechanical structure. This chapter presents a neuro-modulation paradigm to enhance the reeducation of gait functionality immediately following SEMLS in cerebral palsy patients. The experiments were developed and tested with real patients.