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recoveriX is a brain-computer interface technology that helps the brain rewire itself to relearn lost motor functions.
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If stroke, multiple sclerosis or traumatic brain injury affect the ability to move, it isn’t necessarily lost! For that reason, g.tec medical engineering developed recoveriX Neurotechnology, a unique rehabilitative approach based on brain-computer interface technology that helps the brain rewire itself.
While giving the task to imagine a hand or foot movement, recoveriX provides feedback in real-time through muscle stimulation and visual simulation. This process induces neuroplasticity within the brain to relearn hand, arm and foot movements.
recoveriX helps to decrease pain, spasticity and tremor which leads to further improvements of gross and fine motor skills, concentration, passive joint movements, sensitivity, bladder control, sexual function, balance, gait and numbness of the face, body or extremities. It’s particularly striking that clients feel less fatigue and experience a decrease of foot freezing or foot drop.
recoveriX supplements physical and occupational training and can be used in the acute, sub-acute, or chronic states – even 10, 20 or 30 years after the MS diagnosis or the stroke!
Neurological conditions such as stroke and multiple sclerosis (MS) can have severe and far-reaching effects on clients, including paralysis and speech impairment, that severely limit their quality of life. Most treatments for multiple sclerosis are often intended to slow down the disease’s progression, which can leave patients unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair.
However, hope remains for stroke and MS clientsas recoveriX is the world’s first brain-computer interface treatment for stroke and Multiple Sclerosis clients. The neurotechnology aims to train the upper and lower limbs with impairments and has poven significant improvements in locomotion, gait, balance and movement control.
recoveriX is a unique rehabilitative approach based on brain-computer interface technology that helps the brain rewire itself. While giving the task to imagine a hand or foot movement, recoveriX provides feedback in real-time through muscle stimulation and visual simulation. recoveriX does not have any negative side effects, because it uses only small sensors to measure the brain and small and harmless currents to stimulate the muscles, and it’s long-lasting.
recoveriX neurorehabilitation includes 25-30 training sessions and can be done once or twice a day. Through 6,000 repetitions of this process for stroke clients, and 8,000 for MS clients, the neuroplasticity of the brain, and joining these activities together, new neurological links begin to form connections, enabling clients to regain the use of their limbs. This practice is equivalent to a child learning to walk.
recoveriX neurorehabilitation for stroke and multiple sclerosis is a medically certified product in many countries and is currently undergoing FDA approval. Significant improvements can be seen in gross and fine motor skills, musculoskeletal system and muscle tremors, among others. Spasticity, sensitivity, memory, concentration, gait, walk endurance and fatigue improve a lot after recoveriX neurorehabilitation. The recoveriX treatment is currently offered in 14 countries.
A neurological disorder might inhibit your ability to move, but maybe not your ability to imagine movement! Imagine a hand or a foot movement – the imagination triggers nearly the same activity in the brain as a real hand or foot movement. This is what exactly recoveriX uses for your training! With three different kinds of neurofeedback, recoveriX improves your chances for successful training.
Imagine a hand or a foot movement. recoveriX measures and analyses brain waves, which reflects the motor imagery and determines whether the motor imagery was correct.
Once motor imagery has been recognized, virtual reality and functional electrical stimulation will be activated.
Unlike conventional physiotherapy, the BCI guarantees that actual movements only occur when people imagine the corresponding
movement.
The simulation on the screen makes motor imagery visible. Clients sit in front of a screen, where they see hands and feet of an avatar. This gives clients the feeling of watching their own movements in front of a mirror.
If recoveriX recognizes motor imagery of the movement (such as a right hand movement), the avatar moves the right hand.
For this stimulation, two electrodes are placed (for example) on the dorsiflexors of the wrist or on the leg. If the system recognizes a correct motor imagery, the muscles get electrically stimulated, causing a real movement.
This should help you re-learn how to initiate movement, and thus make movement possible again.
The client is motivated because the experience repeatedly reminds the client of the desired goal: being able to move again.
Mirror neurons are activated when a person observes the same behavior in another person.
When recoveriX recognizes the mental imagination of movement in the clients EEG signals, such as the movement of the right hand, the virtual avatar on the screen simulates the corresponding movement in real time.
This visual feedback is similar to mirror neuron training.
recoveriX encourages the client to practice motor imagery of both sides of the body, e.g. the affected right foot or the left hand. This approach is designed to support the activation of both hemispheres of the brain.
Stimulating both hemispheres of the brain improves the coordination of movements and increases fine and gross motor skills on the impaired side.
By imagining the movement, the client controls the avatar and can trigger actual movement through electrostimulation. If performed correctly, the hand or foot is raised and the client can touch a small virtual ball.
The repeated activation of the movement promotes new neuronal connections in healthy areas of the brain, which ultimately control the muscle movements correctly.
During recoveriX training, the healthy limb is constrained to stimulate the impaired limb. Clients must repeatedly imagine the movements of both the healthy and the impaired sides.
This method promotes coordination between the two hemispheres and can help to reduce spasticity and normalize temperature regulation.
recoveriX helps take rehabilitation to a higher level. This neurotechnology makes it possible to combine different techniques and improve the plasticity of the brain in order to restore motor functionality and increase the quality of life. Studies show that this unique approach produces long-term functional improvements, even in chronic clients.
Marc Sebastián Romagosa, PhD Physiotherapist at recoveriX Barcelona
Incomplete spinal cord injury patients are of special interest for recoveriX because the lesion is not located in the brain, but in the spinal cord. An incomplete spinal cord injury occurs when the spinal cord is only partially damaged, resulting in varying degrees of retained sensory and motor function below the site of the injury. We tested several patients to see if we can produce neuroplasticity in these patients with recoveriX that lead to better motoric functions.
We conducted 25 recoveriX sessions with all the patients, performing both pre-assessments and post-assessments to determine if the treatment led to objective improvements.
The assessment included the following tests:
The data below shows the results of one patient who had an accident approximately two years before the recoveriX treatment. The patient fell from a house roof, affecting his gait. The FMA for Upper Extremity shows the maximum score before and after the therapy as expected.
The FMA for Lower Extremity shows an improvement by 2 points after 25 sessions.
The TUG test improved significantly from 42.56 seconds to 26.88 seconds. Notably, there is a clear trend of improvement, indicating that the patient consistently got better with each treatment.
So far, recoveriX has been tested in 6 patients with incomplete spinal cord injuries, and a clinical study is currently ongoing. We are showcasing the first patient of the study here on the webpage.
Regular motor imagery can aid in reactivating neural pathways, promoting neuroplasticity, and aiding in the recovery process after injuries like strokes, multiple sclerosis, or traumatic brain injuries.
Explore recoveriX at Home, a new app by g.tec medical engineering designed to help recoveriX clients to improve their motor function by engaging in motor imagery exercises at home.
