Surjo R. Soekadar a,b, Niels Birbaumer b,c, Marc W. Slutzky d, Leonardo G. Cohen e
As of 2014 there was no standardised treatment solutions for patients who have chronic muscle paralysis. This paper discusses BMI's (brain machine interfaces) that can translate the patients brain activity into signals that can control computers or external devices.
The most prevalent cause of disability around the world is Stroke (Lopez et al 2006). Loss of motor control and function is the largest hinderance after Stroke. A paper by Langhorn et al 2011 - demonstrated that motor capacities can improve in the first months after stroke, any future recovery is 'slow or non existent' - 'The greatest health effect is usually caused by the long-term consequences for patients and their families'. Burke and Cramer, 2013 have investigated why this slowdown is not properly understood.
There are three main 'mechanisms' that can enable stroke recovery. 1): Edema is reduced and during the early phase after stroke 'Diaschisis' is reversed. 2): The improvement of motor functions because of recovery due to 'compensation'. 3): Actual recovery because lost brain functions are returned because of 'homeostatic reorganisation'. The latter two can lead to change in Synaptogenesis and dendritic branching and axonal sprouting and so this makes any analysis of neuroimaging difficult because of the various interactions.
Recovery protocol has been standardised so that it was accepted that the most beneficial recovery period was to be within 1-6 months. Apparently this is also reflected in health insurance policies. However Teasell et al,. 2014 have challenged this by suggesting that there is evidence for effective stroke rehabilitation in the chronic (after 6months) stage of stroke.
Brain interfaces can't be fucked to write anymore TBC