Construction of the dynamic model of SCI rehabilitation using bidirectional stimulation and its application in rehabilitating with BCI

Zhengzhe Cui; Juan Lin; Xiangxiang Fu; Shiwei Zhang; Peng Li; Xixi Wu; Xue Wang; Weidong Chen; Shiqiang Zhu; Yongqiang Li

doi:10.1007/s11571-022-09804-3

Construction of the dynamic model of SCI rehabilitation using bidirectional stimulation and its application in rehabilitating with BCI

Cogn Neurodyn. 2023 Feb;17(1):169-181. doi: 10.1007/s11571-022-09804-3. Epub 2022 Apr 27.

Authors

Zhengzhe Cui^#¹, Juan Lin^#², Xiangxiang Fu^#¹, Shiwei Zhang^#³, Peng Li¹, Xixi Wu², Xue Wang², Weidong Chen⁴, Shiqiang Zhu¹, Yongqiang Li^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Rehabilitation Medicine Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
³ Zibo Yiyuan People's Hospital, Zibo, China.
⁴ Qiushi Academy for Advanced Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Wuxi Tongren Rehabilitation Hospital, Wuxi, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Patients with complete spinal cord injury have a complete loss of motor and sensory functions below the injury plane, leading to a complete loss of function of the nerve pathway in the injured area. Improving the microenvironment in the injured area of patients with spinal cord injury, promoting axon regeneration of the nerve cells is challenging research fields. The brain-computer interface rehabilitation system is different from the other rehabilitation techniques. It can exert bidirectional stimulation on the spinal cord injury area, and can make positively rehabilitation effects of the patient with complete spinal cord injury. A dynamic model was constructed for the patient with spinal cord injury under-stimulation therapy, and the mechanism of the brain-computer interface in rehabilitation training was explored. The effects of the three current rehabilitation treatment methods on the microenvironment in a microscopic nonlinear model were innovatively unified and a complex system mapping relationship from the microscopic axon growth to macroscopic motor functions was constructed. The basic structure of the model was determined by simulating and fitting the data of the open rat experiments. A clinical rehabilitation experiment of spinal cord injury based on brain-computer interface was built, recruiting a patient with complete spinal cord injury, and the rehabilitation training and follow-up were conducted. The changes in the motor function of the patient was simulated and predicted through the constructed model, and the trend in the motor function improvement was successfully predicted over time. This proposed model explores the mechanism of brain-computer interface in rehabilitating patients with complete spinal cord injury, and it is also an application of complex system theory in rehabilitation medicine.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-022-09804-3.

Keywords: Brain-computer interface (BCI); Electroencephalogram (EEG); Mcroscopic motor function; Microscopic nonlinear model; Spinal cord injury (SCI).