Movement-related brain oscillations vary with lesion location in severely paralyzed chronic stroke patients

In the past few years, innovative upper-limb rehabilitation methods have been proposed for chronic stroke patients. These methods aim at functional motor rehabilitation using Brain-machine interfaces to constitute an alternate pathway from the brain to the muscles. Even in patients with absence of residual finger movements, recovery could be achieved. The extent to which these interventions are affected by individual lesion topology is yet to be understood. In this study EEG was measured in 30 chronic stroke patients during movement attempts of the paretic arm. We show that the magnitude of the event-related desynchronization was smaller in patients presenting lesions with involvement of the motor cortex. This could have important implications on the design of new rehabilitation schemes for these patients, which might benefit from carefully tailored interventions.