Hybrid BCI for palliation of severe motor disability

Abstract

This article presents work in progress concerning a hybrid brain computer interface (hBCI). Our goal is the palliation of severe motor disability for patients suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). A hBCI involves several control channels to a pure brain computer interface (BCI). In our case we associate a motor imagery based BCI with EMG (Electromyography) control channel and distal movement sensors. The idea is to detect a finger movement at three levels of the motor command: cerebral, motor and distal. Data from these levels are merged taking into account state of the patient in order to adapt the system to the changing nature of his/her disease and to his/her high fatigability during the day.