Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-30 12:06:41|Editor: ying

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CANBERRA, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientists on Wednesday revealed that stroke recovery could be made easier by using restorative brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to overcome a gap between brain activity and feedback to a victim's senses.

The research team, led by Sam Darvishi from the University of Adelaide, discovered that by using a BCI device, stroke victims recorded a 36 percent increase in sensory feedback scores compared to those who didn't have a BCI, giving medical professionals a clearer picture of a patient's recovery.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Darvishi said that arm movement in a stroke victim employing the BCI experienced a "clinically significant increase" throughout the trials.

"In this study, we explore how shorter than usual feedback update intervals (FUIs) affect behavioral and neurophysiological measures following BCI training for stroke patients using a proof-of-principle study design," he said.

"The action research arm test was used as the primary behavioral measure and showed a clinically significant increase (36 percent) over the course of training.

"The neurophysiological measures including motor evoked potentials and maximum voluntary contraction showed distinctive changes in early and late phases of BCI training."

He said that his small study could open the door for larger studies which could better calibrate BCIs for widespread use across the world.

"Despite the promising results from early studies, reaching clinically significant outcomes in a timely fashion is yet to be achieved," Darvishi said.

"This preliminary study may pave the way for running larger studies to further investigate the (BCIs)."