Non-invasive control of neuroprostheses for the upper extremity: temporal coding of brain patterns

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in deficits of sensory, motor and autonomous functions, with tremendous consequences for the patients. The loss of motor functions, especially grasping, leads to a dramatic decrease in quality of life. With the help of neuroprostheses, the grasp function can be substantially improved in cervical SCI patients. Nowadays, systems for grasp restoration can only be used by patients with preserved voluntary shoulder and elbow function. In patients with lesions above the 5th vertebra, not only the voluntary movements of the elbow are restricted, but also the overall number of preserved movements available for control purposes decreases. A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) offers a method to overcome this problem. This work gives an overview of the Graz BCI used for the control of grasp neuroprostheses as well as a new control method for combining grasp and elbow function is introduced.