NEUROAUGVR Project

Millions of people suffer a stroke each year. Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and prolonged disability. It leads to cognitive and motor impairments, loss of independence, having a strong psychological impact, being associated with mood disorders and depression. By evolving into a chronic condition, stroke requires ongoing rehabilitation and therapy. Personalized Virtual Reality (VR) approaches are believed to accelerate the recovery process when compared to traditional interventions. However, most of these new approaches are only suitable for a small number of patients, generally those with the best prognosis for recovery and better motor control. Thus, the idea of recovering the central nervous system was established through neurofeedback (NF) based on EEG and motor imagery (MI). While the benefits of IM-NF have been illustrated in many studies, the reduced ability of stroke patients to use NF does not allow for precise control, reducing the capabilities of IM-NF systems.

The aim of this project is to develop a new and more inclusive rehabilitation system using new ICTs in order to overcome current limitations. For this purpose, the neural correlates of motor activity during motor imagery through brain imaging (fMRI) will be identified. Differences in brain activation with different feedback protocols will be used to create user-specific models that will be used in NF-IM rehabilitation sessions. This will help explore the use of brain interfaces to train the central nervous system. More specifically, we are going to develop an immersive EEG-based NF through VR for IM training. The ultimate goal will be to generalize the findings into a VR-NF-IM training paradigm for inpatients and outpatients, as well as for continuing home care.

This project has an impact at different levels. At a scientific level, it will contribute to a greater understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms of brain plasticity underlying motor recovery after a stroke; will provide further evidence of the benefits of ICT-enabled rehabilitation approaches. On a technological level, this project proposes new methodologies for training and monitoring rehabilitation after brain injury, offering the community an open tool to share and facilitate the development of future ICT systems for rehabilitation. The existence of such a system has a strong socio-economic impact insofar as, by allowing the creation of new health solutions for patients (personalized and at home), it reduces the financial burden imposed on the national health system. Finally, the implementation of this system with our clinical partners will allow for obtaining valuable data that will help to validate and quantify the impact of these new approaches.

This project is aligned with the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):