Neuromodulation on Cerebral Activities

During a motor task, a causal relation occurs between the motor command generated in the cortex and the proprioceptive feedbacks that go from the activated muscles through the corticospinal pathway. This causal relation is of interest in neurorehabilitation to improve motor function for people with motor difficulties. Previous neurorehabilitation methods used external stimulation to modify the corticospinal pathway controlling the motor function of the affected body parts. An alternative to these approaches is to reinforce the corticospinal pathway by identifying the cortical motor command naturally generated when a person imagines or attempts a movement, and combine it with peripheral nerve stimulation. The research group of Professor D. Farina has developed a method exploiting Brain–computer Interface technology to detect the cortical motor command and use it to trigger peripheral nerve stimulation in order to reinforce the efficiency of the corticospinal pathway. A detailed description of the method and an interview with Prof. D. Farina is presented in this chapter.