Neurorehabilitation

Chinese authorities recently issued a three-year action plan for the rehabilitation assistive-device industry that integrates brain-computer interface (BCI), artificial intelligence and flexible electronics with rehabilitation device development, and pursues medical-engineering collaboration to drive technical breakthroughs in materials and components.

Clinicians and researchers in Guangzhou, southern China, will get hands-on time with closed-loop systems that trigger transcranial magnetic stimulation from real-time EEG analysis at a workshop on July 17, 2026. Shenzhen Yingchi Technology, one of the supporting companies, will bring EEG-driven closed-loop TMS devices and near-infrared brain function imaging equipment. The session is organized by the Professional Committee on Brain Function Detection and Regulation Rehabilitation of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, alongside the committee's 2026 annual conference and the 8th Brain Function Detection and Regulation Rehabilitation Forum.

A study published in Computers in biology and medicine introduces LEGEND, a neural-decoding architecture that jointly models cortical EEG, spinal ESG, and peripheral-muscle EMG for a neural bypass in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The model encodes the three signal modalities in Lorentz hyperbolic space, connects 51 channel nodes through a signed tri-layer phase-locking-value graph, and refines the representation with graph attention. Under strict leave-one-subject-out evaluation on the Steele dataset, LEGEND achieved 56.51%±12.27% accuracy, 23.4 percentage points above EEGNet. The researchers argue that hyperbolic representations can capture complex relationships across the motor hierarchy, providing a computational foundation for rehabilitation decoding that links brain, spinal, and muscle activity.

The trial compares motor imagery BCI plus standard rehabilitation against standard rehabilitation alone in stroke patients with hemiplegia, tracking limb motor function and daily living ability. It planned to enroll 60 participants, 30 per arm, with the first participant enrolled on August 10, 2022; the registry now lists the study as completed. Beyond motor scales, the primary outcomes include functional connectivity and a lateralization index measured with fNIRS, probing brain-network changes rather than behavior scores alone.

The randomized controlled trial plans to enroll 60 patients with lower limb motor impairment after stroke, with the intervention group receiving BCI-assisted exoskeleton rehabilitation training and the control group conventional walking training. Primary outcomes include lower limb surface electromyography, lower limb motor function, the Modified Barthel Index, a balance scale and functional ambulation, testing whether a BCI-driven exoskeleton adds functional benefit over conventional gait training. Punan Hospital, Pudong New Area, Shanghai is the sponsor, with first enrolment set for May 30, 2026. The trial is registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) under number ChiCTR2600125531, with a registration date of May 28, 2026, and recruitment has not yet started.

The randomized controlled trial plans to enroll 58 patients with upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke. The test group will receive feedback-based rehabilitation training through brain-computer interface interaction, while the control group will undergo traditional upper limb circular motion training. The primary outcome is the Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE), with secondary outcomes covering motor function, daily living activities, quality of life and neurophysiological measures including EEG, transcranial magnetic stimulation and fNIRS. The trial was prospectively registered, with first enrolment set for June 1, 2026, and recruitment has not yet started.

The multicenter randomized controlled trial plans to enroll 222 patients who are 1 to 3 months past their first stroke and have motor impairment in the affected lower limb. The experimental group will receive 4 weeks of motor imagery-based BCI-driven active and passive lower limb training, while the control group gets 4 weeks of conventional training. The primary outcome is the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Lower Extremity Section, with balance, daily living ability and walking classification as secondary outcomes. First enrolment is set for May 31, 2026.

The multicenter randomized controlled trial pits closed-loop BCI ankle training against conventional active and passive ankle training in subacute stroke patients who are 4 to 12 weeks past onset and have less than 10 degrees of active ankle dorsiflexion. Primary endpoints are active ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and Manual Muscle Testing of the ankle; secondary endpoints include Functional Ambulation Classification, the Berg Balance Scale and the Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment of the Lower Limb. The trial plans to enroll 120 patients, 60 per arm, with first enrolment set for May 31, 2026.

A trial combining tactile-feedback brain-computer interface training with motor imagery for upper-limb rehabilitation after stroke is recruiting in China. Registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry as ChiCTR2600124911 on May 19, 2026 and carried by the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, the trial record is available through the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

The trial split 54 stroke patients with hand impairment into three groups using kinesthetic, hybrid and visuomotor imagery to drive BCI training, with upper-limb Fugl-Meyer score as the primary endpoint. The registration record does not yet report which imagery mode worked best.

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.

A trial testing a brain-computer interface (BCI) combined with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in patients with disorders of consciousness was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) on May 7, 2026 under the number ChiCTR2600124127, and is now recruiting. The design, sample size and sponsor are not given in the record and would have to be checked against the original registration.

A trial at Xuzhou Rehabilitation Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University paired a motor imagery brain-computer interface with modified constraint-induced movement therapy to restore upper-limb function after stroke. The hospital is a rehabilitation specialty facility affiliated with Xuzhou Medical University, and the combined approach is meant to test whether a BCI adds benefit on top of established rehabilitation training. It planned 40 participants, 20 in the combined group and 20 in the control group, with the first patient enrolled on December 24, 2025; the registry now lists the study as completed. The primary endpoint is the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Extremity, with the Wolf Motor Function Test and modified Barthel Index as secondary measures. Funding comes from the New Round of Xuzhou "Pengcheng Talent Program" — High-level Healthcare Talent Recruitment and Development Project, project number 2025TD14. No results are posted, so whether the combined approach beats constraint therapy alone remains unknown.

Researchers assessed the feasibility of a hybrid brain-computer interface that integrates motor imagery (MI) and steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) with robotic glove feedback for upper limb motor rehabilitation in 32 stroke patients, split into a conventional-treatment control group and an experimental group receiving 10- or 20-day BCI interventions. The experimental group showed considerable improvement in Fugl-Meyer scores over the control group, and the BCI achieved EEG classification accuracy up to 98.08% with stable operation; after longer training, accuracy rose, the laterality coefficient moved toward normal, and task-related brain connectivity strengthened. The authors say the hybrid system may overcome the limits of conventional therapy and single-modality BCIs.

The trial combines a brain-computer interface with robotic mirror therapy into a single intervention, while the control arm receives conventional comprehensive rehabilitation only. It enrolls patients aged 30 to 80 with unilateral upper-limb motor impairment 1 to 6 months after ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, whose lesions are confined to the basal ganglia. The primary endpoint is the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity, with EEG, functional MRI and the Modified Ashworth Scale among secondary measures. The planned enrollment is 40 patients, with first enrollment set for May 1, 2026.

A trial registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry combines low-frequency rTMS with motor imagery brain-computer interface therapy, using conventional physical rehabilitation as the control, with the Fugl-Meyer upper extremity scale as the primary endpoint. The study has three parts: Part I compares BCI therapy with conventional rehabilitation, while Part III compares three rTMS protocols. It plans to enroll 213 participants, with first enrolment set for May 1, 2026; recruitment has not yet begun.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) trial for upper-limb motor rehabilitation after hemorrhagic stroke was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry under the number ChiCTR2600122859 on April 20, 2026, and has not yet begun recruiting. The study combines electroencephalography (EEG) with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The registration record does not disclose the study design, sample size or sponsor.

A randomized controlled trial of motor-imagery brain-computer interface (BCI) training for swallowing difficulty after stroke was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) on April 9, 2026, under the number ChiCTR2600122162. It will test whether the training improves swallowing function in stroke patients, and has not yet begun recruiting.

A randomized controlled trial in 120 patients with post-stroke hemiplegia found that pairing brain-computer interface (BCI) rehabilitation training with a gait robot accelerated lower-limb recovery and improved muscle activation patterns more than either intervention on its own. After eight weeks, BCI training, gait-robot training and the combination all improved lower-limb motor function, muscle activity and gait compared with routine training, but the combined group showed the largest increases in integrated electromyography of the tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius, along with a greater gain in step frequency and a greater reduction in step width.

The Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) has logged a study of a brain-computer interface (BCI)-enabled cognitive rehabilitation system, set to test its clinical effect in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Registered on February 25, 2026 as ChiCTR2600119334, the trial is not yet recruiting.

Researchers designed an assistive Boccia ramp controlled by a brain-computer interface so that children with severe motor impairments who cannot speak can take part in the Paralympic sport. Six caregivers took part in semi-structured interviews and six children completed a newly developed 21-item survey; the children showed keen interest in playing Boccia with a BCI. The study also maps current barriers and facilitators to sport participation, and the issues that must be resolved before such technology can be rolled out.

Austrian company g.tec medical engineering GmbH has registered a brain-computer interface rehabilitation trial in Parkinson's disease on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06690931, first posted on November 15, 2024 and marked completed as of the entry's September 3, 2026 update. It evaluates recoveriX PRO, which pairs motor imagination with functional electrical stimulation (FES) and virtual reality feedback, the user wearing an EEG cap whose recorded neural activity drives the feedback devices, and it asks whether the therapy significantly improves motor function, whether it outperforms standard treatment, and whether it is equally safe. The BCI group trains six times a week for four weeks, 24 sessions in all, while the control group gets the same schedule of FES and VR without EEG monitoring; no results are posted in the registry entry.

A randomized clinical trial called BCI-REHAB compared an at-home brain-computer interface (BCI) therapy system with a home exercise program for upper-extremity rehabilitation in chronic stroke survivors. The trial, conducted in the United States, was first posted on July 28, 2023, last updated on August 12, 2026, and has a status of completed. The study used Neurolutions' IpsiHand Upper Extremity Rehabilitation System, which reads motor intentions via scalp electrodes and drives an exoskeleton hand device to facilitate repetitive hand movement training. The trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy of BCI-based therapy versus standard exercise therapy and assess the potential for meaningful motor improvement in a home setting. The trial covered conditions including stroke, hemiparesis, spasticity as a sequela of stroke, and chronic stroke survivors with a plegic hand, but results have not yet been published.