Houston validation could bring stroke rehabilitation into the home

Validation by a team at the University of Houston (UH) could help to cut hospital visits for the 795,000 people in the United States who annually suffer a stroke.

“We designed and validated a wireless, easy-to-use, mobile, dry-electrode headset for scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings for closed-loop brain–computer (BCI) interface and internet-of-things (IoT) applications,” professor Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, reported in the journal Sensors.

An EEG-based BCI provides a pathway between the brain and external devices by interpreting EEG brain activity to initiate robotic movement. Brain-machine interfaces based on scalp EEG also have the potential to promote cortical plasticity following stroke, which can improve motor recovery outcomes.

According to UH, the adjustable headset, designed from commercial off-the-shelf components, can accommodate 90 per cent of the population. There is a patent-pending on the BCI algorithm and the self-positioning dry electrode bracket allowed for vertical self-positioning while parting the user’s hair to ensure contact of the electrode with the scalp.