Explore the vast range of titles available.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are used in stroke rehabilitation to translate brain signals into intended movements of the paralyzed limb. However, the efficacy and mechanisms of BCI-based therapies remain unclear. Here we show that BCI coupled to functional electrical stimulation (FES) elicits significant, clinically relevant, and lasting motor recovery in chronic stroke survivors more effectively than sham FES. Such recovery is associated to quantitative signatures of functional neuroplasticity. BCI patients exhibit a significant functional recovery after the intervention, which remains 6–12 months after the end of therapy. Electroencephalography analysis pinpoints significant differences in favor of the BCI group, mainly consisting in an increase in functional connectivity between motor areas in the affected hemisphere. This increase is significantly correlated with functional improvement. Results illustrate how a BCI–FES therapy can drive significant functional recovery and purposeful plasticity thanks to contingent activation of body natural efferent and afferent pathways. Brain-computer interface (BCI) can improve motor skills on stroke patients. This study shows that BCI-controlled neuromuscular electrical stimulation therapy can cause cortical reorganization due to activation of efferent and afferent pathways, and this effect can be long lasting in a brain region specific manner.

Interindividual functional and structural brain variability is a major problem in group studies, in which very focal activations are expected. Architectonic studies have shown that the human primary auditory area, which is located with a great constancy on Heschl's gyrus, is surrounded by several nonprimary auditory areas with surface areas of 40–310 mm 2. The small size of the latter makes them only partially accessible to fMRI group studies, because of imprecision in realignment when using currently available registration procedures. We describe here a new method for sulcal realignment using a non-rigid local landmark-based registration and show its application to the registration of fMRI acquisitions on the supratemporal plane. After an affine global voxel-based registration, which transforms all brains into the same standard space, we propose a non-rigid local landmark-based registration method based on thin-plate splines for matching the two sulci delimiting Heschl's gyrus of a given brain to the corresponding sulci of a reference brain. We show here that, in comparison with global affine and non-rigid approaches, our method leads in group studies to i) a much more precise alignment of Heschl's gyrus; and ii) a putatively optimal superposition of functionally corresponding areas on and around Heschl's gyrus.

Trace conditioning refers to a learning process occurring after repeated presentation of a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+) and a salient unconditioned stimulus (UCS) separated by a temporal gap. Recent studies have reported that trace conditioning can occur in humans in reduced levels of consciousness by showing a transfer of the unconditioned autonomic response to the CS+ in healthy sleeping individuals and in vegetative state patients. However, no previous studies have investigated the neural underpinning of trace conditioning in the absence of consciousness in humans. In the present study, we recorded the EEG activity of 29 post-anoxic comatose patients while presenting a trace conditioning paradigm using neutral tones as CS+ and alerting sounds as UCS. Most patients received therapeutic hypothermia and all were deeply unconscious according to standardized clinical scales. After repeated presentation of the CS+ and UCS couple, learning was assessed by measuring the EEG activity during the period where the UCS is omitted after CS+ presentation. Specifically we assessed the ‘reactivation’ of the neural response to UCS omission by applying a decoding algorithm derived from the statistical model of the EEG activity in response to the UCS presentation. The same procedure was used in a group of 12 awake healthy controls. We found a reactivation of the UCS response in absence of stimulation in eight patients (five under therapeutic hypothermia) and four healthy controls. Additionally, the reactivation effect was temporally specific within trials since it manifested primarily at the specific latency of UCS presentation and significantly less before or after this period. Our results show for the first time that trace conditioning may manifest as a reactivation of the EEG activity related to the UCS and even in the absence of consciousness. •Evidence of trace conditioning can be found in comatose patients•Learning an association can manifest as a reactivation of the EEG activity•This association is temporally specific•Healthy controls can also show the same reactivation effect•Trace conditioning may not require consciousness