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. 2014:2014:1238-42.
doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6943821.

Brain-computer interface driven functional electrical stimulation system for overground walking in spinal cord injury participant

Christine E King, Po T Wang, Colin M McCrimmon, Cathy C Y Chou, An H Do, Zoran Nenadic

Brain-computer interface driven functional electrical stimulation system for overground walking in spinal cord injury participant

Christine E King et al. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014.

Abstract

The current treatment for ambulation after spinal cord injury (SCI) is to substitute the lost behavior with a wheelchair; however, this can result in many co-morbidities. Thus, novel solutions for the restoration of walking, such as brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) devices, have been sought. This study reports on the first electroencephalogram (EEG) based BCI-FES system for overground walking, and its performance assessment in an individual with paraplegia due to SCI. The results revealed that the participant was able to purposefully operate the system continuously in real time. If tested in a larger population of SCI individuals, this system may pave the way for the restoration of overground walking after SCI.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Partial picture of the overground walking course, depicting the BCI-Parastep system, the movement measurement system (two gyroscopes and a laser distance meter), and the ZeroG. Each cone was positioned 1.8 m away from each other, and the participant was instructed to idle for 10–15 s, randomized by the experimenter, at each cone.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Typical EEG feature extraction maps on one experimental day, showing salient features (in blue, −1, and red, +1) over the C3 and C4 electrodes in the low-β band, and the Cz and CPz electrodes in the high-β band.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Composite scores and the mean for the BCI walking simulator training sessions, as described in [9], [10] and Section II-G.1.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
The overground walking test results for the 23rd experiment day. Depicted here are the laser data, verbal cues given by the experimenter, the state of the BCI system, and the gyroscope data used to assess the BCI-Parastep mediated walking performance. Note that there is 4 s between each FES mediated step to allow for weight shifting and walker advancement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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