GRUENS - Gehirn-Roboter Schnittstelle zur motorischen Rehabilitation von Schlaganfall Patienten

In the past years Brain-Machine interfaces (BMI) were used to facilitate control of robotic rehabilitative devices by the brain activity of the sensorimotor cortex. With this methodology motor improvements could be induced in chronically impaired stroke patients. Especially the combination of BMI and physiotherapy proved to be effective. BMI circumvents the dysfunctional efferent pathways from the brain to the muscles and physiotherapy helps to elicit neuroplastic processes that promote motor rehabilitation.

The GRUENS project aims at improving the outcome and accelerating the rehabilitation process. Towards this goal we develop a hybrid decoder that detects the patients' brain signals (Electroencephalography - EEG) and their residual muscle activity (Electromyography - EMG). The decoder generates a combined control signal for a rehabilitation robot, which will allow for the development of more interesting and motivating robot-based rehabilitation schemes for stroke patients. Moreover, direct training of functional movements necessary for daily living will be possible.

Funding

Duration: 2013 - 2016

Agency: Baden-Württemberg Stiftung

Partners

• University of Tübingen - Department of Computer Engineering