BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — Adding motor imagery brain-computer interface (BCI) training to conventional rehabilitation significantly improved upper limb motor function and daily living abilities in patients with subacute stroke hemiplegia, according to a randomized controlled study of 60 patients by a team at Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, published in Advances in Precision Medicine on July 31, 2026.
The study randomly divided 60 patients into an experimental group and a control group, 30 each. The control group received conventional rehabilitation combined with upper limb motor function training for 3 weeks, 5 days per week. The experimental group additionally received motor imagery BCI training using the LSR-AII brain-computer interface, with personalized training thresholds and movements set according to each patient's limb dysfunction, 30 minutes per session, once daily.
Before intervention, there were no significant differences between groups in functional scores (p > 0.05). After intervention, both groups improved, with the experimental group showing greater improvements in Fugl-Meyer upper limb motor function scores, simplified upper limb function scores, and Barthel Index, as well as higher rates of limb spasm improvement and motor function enhancement, with statistically significant between-group differences (p < 0.05).