At the UH Manoa Neurorehabilitation Unit, we are interested in neurorehabilitation techniques which combine neuroimaging techniques like EEG with computer interfaces.
In the United States, more than 795,000 people have a stroke, and 1.5 million sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Many of these patients will suffer from long term neurologic symptoms. Our purpose at the Neurorehabilitation Unit is to research and develop cutting edge technology to aid in the recovery of patients with neurologic damage.
We currently deploy a brain-computer interface which uses brain activity to provide visual and electric muscle feedback for patients. The patients are connected to an EEG monitor, and are told to think about moving a limb. Once the EEG senses this data, the patient sees an avatar move a limb accordingly, and they are given electric stimulation on the limb they are thinking of moving. This re-associates the nervous system connection to motor commands.