Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Running a motor-imagery BCI while transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is switched on has been difficult, because stimulation artifacts swamp the brain rhythms the decoder relies on and push accuracy close to chance. In a controlled test with 14 healthy participants, a real-time spatial filtering pipeline combining spatio-spectral decomposition with beamforming held accuracy at 76 ± 9% during stimulation, while a standard Laplacian filter managed only 58 ± 9%. That makes closed-loop "stimulate while reading" operation feasible at the signal level; whether it actually improves BCI performance or produces neuroplastic changes, the paper explicitly leaves to future research.

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.

The Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine will hold a workshop on EEG-driven closed-loop TMS in Guangzhou, southern China, on July 17, 2026, staged under its Naoke China (脑客中国) series and run by its committee on brain function monitoring and modulation in rehabilitation. The technique reads EEG in real time and triggers a TMS pulse when a target brain state appears, a 'brain-state-dependent stimulation' approach that pairs the spatial precision of TMS with the temporal resolution of EEG, and the program is built around moving BCI work out of the laboratory into neurorehabilitation and the precision diagnosis of brain disorders. Shenzhen Yingchi Technology, a subsidiary of Hanix United, is among the supporting organizations, and registration closes on July 17.

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 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.

The University of Texas at Austin has registered a study on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05907343, testing whether non-invasive stimulation can strengthen cognitive control in older adults, enrolling both people with cognitive impairment and people without it. It asks whether theta burst stimulation, a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, can restore a range of cognitive functions, and whether delivering it in closed loop, timed to ongoing brain activity rather than on a fixed schedule, changes the result.