The feasibility of a brain-computer interface functional electrical stimulation system for the restoration of overground walking after paraplegia

This study explores the possibility of using a brain-computer interface (BCI) to help people with paraplegia walk again. The idea is to use a noninvasive system to control functional electrical stimulation (FES). The study involved training an individual with a spinal cord injury to use an EEG-based BCI system. This system was then integrated with a commercial FES system to enable overground walking. The participant successfully used the BCI-FES system to walk overground, demonstrating purposeful control by following verbal cues. This suggests that restoring brain-controlled overground walking after paraplegia is feasible.

• 1
  The participant demonstrated the ability to purposefully operate the BCI-FES system by following verbal cues during overground walking tests.
• 2
  The participant achieved information transfer rates greater than 3 bit/s and correlations greater than 0.9 based on the comparison between the ground truth and decoded BCI states.
• 3
  No adverse events directly related to the study were observed during the 19-week period.