BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — Only 11 pediatric brain-computer interface (BCI) clinical trials exist worldwide, and most enroll both adults and children, suggesting that children may be inadequately prioritized in BCI research, according to a registry-based cross-sectional descriptive analysis published in Journal of Child Neurology on July 24, 2026. The authors are Christopher A. Bobier, Reza Peyravi, and Daniel Hurst.
The researchers searched ClinicalTrials.gov and 3 international registries using terms including "brain-computer interface," "BCI," "brain-machine interface," "neural interface," "neuroprosthetics," and "EEG-based assistive technology," limited to participants aged 0-17 years. Two independent reviewers screened records and extracted key study variables, including device type (implanted vs. non-implanted), enrollment, duration, phase, and condition studied.
The 11 included trials spanned 7 countries. Eight evaluated non-implanted devices and 3 evaluated implanted systems. Non-implanted trials had a median duration of 56.0 days (IQR: 42.0-182.6) and a median enrollment of 29 participants (IQR: 19-51.5; range: 8-400). Implanted trials had a median duration of 365.3 days (IQR: 91.3-1826.4) and a median enrollment of 8 participants (IQR: 3-30; range: 3-30). Only 4 studies enrolled exclusively pediatric participants; the rest recruited both pediatric and adult participants.
The authors conclude that current pBCI clinical research remains limited in scope, and children may be inadequately prioritized in BCI research.