Patients with ALS can use sensorimotor rhythms to operate a brain-computer interface

People with severe motor disabilities can maintain an acceptable quality of life if they can communicate. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which do not depend on muscle control, can provide communication. Four people severely disabled by ALS learned to operate a BCI with EEG rhythms recorded over sensorimotor cortex. These results suggest that a sensorimotor rhythm–based BCI could help maintain quality of life for people with ALS.

[1]  J M Young,et al.  Against all odds: positive life experiences of people with advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. , 1998, Health & social work.

[2]  G. Borasio,et al.  Breaking the news in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , 1998, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[3]  B. Mcfarland,et al.  Attitudes of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their care givers toward assisted suicide. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

[4]  K. Foley,et al.  End-of-life care , 1999, Neurology.

[5]  H. Flor,et al.  A spelling device for the paralysed , 1999, Nature.

[6]  K. Schroeter End‐of‐Life Care: A Survey of US Neurologists' Attitudes, Behavior, and Knowledge , 1999 .

[7]  N. Birbaumer,et al.  Brain-computer communication: self-regulation of slow cortical potentials for verbal communication. , 2001, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[8]  Access www.neurology.org now for full-text articles , 2001, Neurology.

[9]  Bernhard Neundörfer,et al.  Subjective experience and coping in ALS , 2002, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other motor neuron disorders : official publication of the World Federation of Neurology, Research Group on Motor Neuron Diseases.

[10]  D.J. McFarland,et al.  The Wadsworth Center brain-computer interface (BCI) research and development program , 2003, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.