Trial Pairs iTBS With Motor Imagery BCI Training for Post-Stroke Arm Impairment
Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has registered a parallel-design interventional trial, ChiCTR2600124411, that plans to enroll 81 patients with unilateral upper-limb impairment after stroke in three groups of 27. Two groups receive intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or the primary motor cortex, and one receives sham stimulation; all three undergo motor imagery BCI training. Primary outcomes are BCI decoding accuracy, the Fugl-Meyer Assessment and brain network topology. The trial was registered on May 12, 2026 and is not yet recruiting.
Why it matters
The trial compares the same stimulation delivered to the motor cortex and to the prefrontal cortex to see which better supports motor imagery BCI training, and makes brain network topology a primary outcome in an attempt to explain how any benefit arises. The registration gives no stimulation parameters or course length and there are no results yet, so whether decoding accuracy and arm function improve will only be known once the trial is completed.