DOC-Stim · Communication and rehabilitation for people with Disorders of consciousness via Brain-Computer Interfaces

Communication and rehabilitation for people with Disorders of consciousness via Brain-Computer Interfaces

Persons with a disorder of consciousness (DOC) have little or no ability to interact with people and devices. They are unable to control voluntary movement, and hence they cannot speak, blink, use devices for communication, or otherwise convey their needs and desires. The uploaded figure shows disorders of consciousness classified on a two-dimensional scale of arousal and awareness. Arousal is also described as wakefulness or vigilance. Awareness is the level of perception and recognition of the person himself and of the environment. People in coma have no arousal and no awareness and could be found in the bottom left corner of the figure. In the top right corner, one can find people in the locked-in syndrome (LIS). People with minimal consciousness state (MCS) or unresponsive wakefulness (UWS) are the most challenging in terms of diagnoses and treatment. The arousal of these people could be very high, although the awareness is not existent (UWS) or at a low level (MCS). Research from our group and others has shown that up to 42% of patients in top hospitals are misdiagnosed, when using behavioural assessment techniques. This misdiagnosis can, among other problems, discourage doctors and families from even trying to communicate with the patients. It has been shown that electroencephalograhpy (EEG) can be useful for the diagnosis. Activations of brain regions can be assessed in real-time, as well as the brains' reactions to outer stimuli. Such methods and devices based on real-time EEG can help re-assess DOC patients’ cognitive functions and even provide basic communication for them. Other work found that new tools to noninvasively monitor and stimulate brain activity could substantially improve recovery of persons with stroke or other disabilities. EEG data can detect each patient’s motor imagery and thereby influence multimodal feedback in real-time. This project worked on developing new EEG based assessment and rehabilitation tools for DOC patients. We created a new system that will be used to collect data with DOC patients. We analyzed the resulting data to develop new knowledge and contribute to improved tools that therapists and physicians can use.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union