Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation最新文献

{"title":"Microstate permutation complexity of EEG signals distinguishes minimally conscious state plus from minimally conscious state minus.","authors":"Zhibin Zhao, Zhenhu Liang, Yong Wang, Xiaoli Li, He Chen","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01993-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01993-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Accurately distinguishing minimally conscious state plus (MCS+) from minimally conscious state minus (MCS-) is critical for prognosis and treatment planning. Microstate analysis decomposes multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) into a sequence of brief, relatively stable scalp electric-field topographies, offering a unique spatiotemporal perspective on brain activity. Yet applications of microstate methods to the assessment of disorders of consciousness remain scarce. Moreover, most state-of-the-art studies focus on characterizing the complexity of microstate sequences, while conventional complexity measures overlook transitions between microstates. To address this gap, we propose Microstate Permutation Lempel-Ziv Complexity (MS-PLZC), an extension of Lempel-Ziv complexity that explicitly encodes ordinal permutation information to more sensitively capture the temporal organization of microstate sequences.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Resting-state EEG was recorded from 45 individuals with disorders of consciousness (15 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, 15 MCS-, 15 MCS+) and 15 neurologically healthy controls. MS-PLZC, conventional microstate LZC, spectral power, sample entropy, and classical LZC were calculated and statistically compared. These features were assessed using a nested leave-one-out cross-validated (LOOCV) SVM with exhaustive hyper-parameter search.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both MS-LZC and MS-PLZC showed statistically significant group differences (Kruskal-Wallis test: MS-LZC: H = 26.92, p < 0.0000, η²=0.2099; MS-PLZC: H = 35.11, p < 0.0000, η²=0.2816), with MS-PLZC exhibiting greater statistical power. Notably, MS-PLZC successfully distinguished between MCS- and MCS+ patients (p _adj < 0.05) with a large effect size (Cliff's Delta = -0.6178), whereas MS-LZC demonstrated only a medium effect size (Cliff's Delta = -0.3067). In the machine-learning analysis MS-PLZC achieved the highest leave-one-out accuracy (0.733) and ROC-AUC (0.733).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results indicate that MS-PLZC sensitively captures subtle shifts in microstate dynamics and offers a reliable single-feature discriminator of MCS+ versus MCS-, with translational potential for detecting key recovery windows during routine assessment of consciousness.</p>","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147816337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sensory and cortical biomarkers unveil pain modulation mechanisms induced by targeted multisensory neurostimulation.","authors":"Giuseppe Valerio Aurucci, Noemi Gozzi, Andrea Cimolato, Markus Wagner, Carl Moritz Zipser, Stanisa Raspopovic","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01998-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01998-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Chronic neuropathic pain is a complex experience that poses a major challenge in personalized treatment. Identifying objective biomarkers of pain modulation is critical to validate emerging non-pharmacological therapies with reliable endpoints, overcoming the limitations of simplified subjective scales.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Here, we introduce a multimodal monitoring framework that integrates behavioral, sensory, and cortical assessments to provide a comprehensive evaluation of a multisensory neurostimulation treatment combining immersive VR with targeted neurostimulation (VR+tSTIM). We compared the effects of this intervention with an active control in 18 participants with chronic neuropathic pain over multiple days.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>VR+tSTIM led to a clinically significant reduction in self-reported pain intensity. This reduction was accompanied by sensory measures, with participants in the VR+tSTIM group showing enhanced tactile acuity and improved proprioceptive accuracy, effects that did not appear in the control group. Treatment effectiveness was further associated with cortical EEG signatures of decreased gamma and delta power together with increased alpha power.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings identify potential sensory and cortical biomarkers associated with analgesia and suggest that pain relief in neuropathy may involve the modulation of both peripheral and central mechanisms. This comprehensive assessment paradigm establishes a foundation for the objective monitoring of treatment efficacy and advances the search for mechanistic biomarkers of pain modulation in clinical neuroengineering.</p><p><strong>Trial registration: </strong>This study was approved by the Kantonale Ethikkommission Zürich (Nr. 2021-02258).</p>","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationship between lower limb muscle coordination and knee flexion angle during the swing phase of gait in post-stroke individuals.","authors":"Taiga Karino, Toshiyuki Aoyama, Kenichi Yoshikawa, Kiyoshige Ishibashi, Yutaka Kohno","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-02000-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-02000-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Stroke patients with hemiplegia often show inefficient gait patterns, including reduced knee flexion during the swing phase, which may increase fall risk. Post-stroke gait frequently involves merged muscle synergies that affect lower limb kinematics. However, it remains unclear how muscle synergy merging and fractionation relate to knee flexion during the swing phase. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the association between knee flexion during the swing phase and muscle synergy merging and fractionation patterns in patients with stroke.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The study comprised 21 stroke patients with hemiplegia. Surface electromyography was recorded from eight lower-limb muscles on the paretic side during comfortable gait. Maximum knee flexion angle (MKFA) during the swing phase was measured using a markerless motion capture system. Using non-negative matrix factorization, the number of muscle synergies, their spatiotemporal structure were calculated. Participants were classified into a low-synergy group (LS; n = 5; one or two synergies) or a high-synergy group (HS; n = 16; three synergies). Group comparisons of MKFA during the swing phase were performed. Furthermore, we investigated whether muscle synergies of the HS group could be fractionations of those of the LS group.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The HS group showed significantly greater MKFA compared with the LS group (p = 0.032). In the HS group, the ankle plantar flexors constituted an independent muscle synergy, whereas in the LS group, these muscles had high weightings within a muscle synergy associated with load response. Furthermore, the independent muscle synergies observed in the HS group were shown to be fractionated from the merged muscle synergies present in the LS group.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results showed that merged muscle synergies were associated with reduced MKFA during the swing phase, whereas an independent synergy involving the plantar flexors was associated with greater knee flexion. These findings suggest that fractionation of the plantar flexor synergy may be important for improving knee kinematics after stroke and could inform targeted rehabilitation strategies. Given the relatively small and imbalanced sample size, cautious interpretation of the findings is warranted. Further studies with larger, balanced samples are needed to further strengthen the evidence for these findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hyperbaric oxygen therapy combined with computerized cognitive training improves global cognition and functional independence post-stroke: a randomized controlled trial.","authors":"Jing Liu, Tao Han, Cuihua Yan, Qingping Ma, Lingling Yuan, Shulong Ge, Xiaolei Xu, Xuewu Liu","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01992-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01992-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bionicohand: a collaborative, open-source myoelectric prosthetic hand designed with and for its user.","authors":"Roger Pissard-Gibollet, Côme Butin, Nicolas Huchet, Henri Boutard, Sébastien Cariou, Yann Corbel, Charlie Dreano, Jean Forest, Christian Fromentin, Arthur Van Haaren, Christophe Braillon, Christine Azevedo Coste","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01987-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01987-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The past, present and future of control architectures in lower-limb cable-driven robots for gait rehabilitation.","authors":"Nour Al-Rahmani, Mohammad I Awad, Sunil Agrawal, Marwan El-Rich, Kinda Khalaf","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01982-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01982-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Due to their high power-to-weight ratio, modular and reconfigurable architectures, and inherent compliance, cable-driven rehabilitation robots (CDRRs) provide safe, lightweight, backdrivable solutions for gait and movement rehabilitation. However, they continue to face unique control challenges due to cable properties and user variability. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, this systematic review explores control strategies for lower-limb CDRRs from the past decade. Out of the 968 studies initially identified, 70 met the selection criteria and were classified into six categories: position and velocity, force- and torque-based, compliance-based, model-based and optimal, learning-based and intention-informed, and hierarchical frameworks. Our analysis revealed a chronological evolution from traditional classical control toward more personalized, adaptive, learning-based, and intention-driven methods. Impedance and admittance control remain fundamental for ensuring safety, while newer approaches enable user-specific and environment-responsive assistance. This review proposes a unified hierarchical framework linking high-level intent detection to low-level actuation providing researchers and developers with a structured understanding of the control landscape for cable-driven lower-limb exoskeletons in healthcare and beyond. Control strategies were also linked to clinical outcomes to relate them to functional improvements across patient populations. Advancing CDRRs will require unified, multi-layer architectures that couple constraint-aware model-based control with adaptive and intention-driven learning to achieve safe, scalable, and clinically meaningful rehabilitation.</p>","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An interpretable deep learning diagnostic framework for early Alzheimer's disease based on EEG microstate spectra and multi-branch CNN.","authors":"Zipeng Li, Xin Li, Zhongjie Qu, Rui Su, Bowen Yin, Liyong Yin","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01980-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01980-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using explainable AI to identify disease-relevant and deep brain stimulation treatment-sensitive gait features in Parkinson's disease.","authors":"Zhongke Mei, Alain Ryser, Gianluca Amprimo, Jinhao Wang, Julia Vogt, Deepak K Ravi","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01997-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-01997-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping motor point response areas in the calf during transcutaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation.","authors":"Nelida Aliaga, Jafeth Lizana, Liv Nilsson Forsström, Robin Juthberg, Paul W Ackermann","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-01999-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12984-026-01999-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) delivered transcutaneously activates skeletal muscle; its effectiveness is determined by stimulation parameters and by how skin-applied currents recruit underlying neuromuscular structures. Motor points (MPs) are commonly used to guide electrode placement; however, they are typically treated as discrete skin locations, and the spatial extent and reproducibility of surrounding responsive regions remain poorly characterised. Moreover, the minimum intensity required to elicit visible motor responses, and its variability over time, are seldom reported. The calf represents an appropriate model to examine these issues, as posterior calf stimulation produces visible ankle plantar flexion (PF). This study aimed to map stimulation response patterns in the skin associated with an identified MP in the posterior calf, assess their reproducibility, and determine the stimulation intensity required to elicit PF.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Thirty healthy adults underwent three weekly NMES sessions on the same calf. In each session, the same MP was stimulated at the lowest PF-eliciting intensity. A circular grid (5 cm radius) classified the surrounding skin as eliciting PF with muscle contraction (Zone 1), isolated muscle contraction (Zone 2), or no response (Zone 3). Areas were compared across sessions. Temporal stability was assessed using non-parametric tests and bootstrapping. Logistic regression examined associations between participant characteristics and response area size.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A concentric pattern of diminishing responses from the MP was observed. Median Zone 1 (MP response area) was 8.1 cm² (Interquartile range (IQR): 4.7-12.6), Zone 2 was 30.4 cm² (IQR: 15.7-44.8), and combined Zone 1 + 2 (functional MP response area) measured 42.9 cm² (IQR: 21.5-57.6). Zone 3 was 35.6 cm². All zones showed consistent size across sessions. Higher physical activity and older age were inversely associated with Zone 2 size.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>MP activation during transcutaneous NMES is better described as a finite and reproducible cutaneous response area rather than a single skin location. PF is confined to a small, stable core region, while surrounding areas elicit weaker or absent motor responses. These findings have implications for how MPs are conceptualised and assessed in NMES protocols.</p>","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13127072/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparative efficacy of motor imagery augmented with central non-invasive brain stimulation versus peripheral electrical stimulation for upper extremity rehabilitation post-stroke: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.","authors":"Lei Xi, Qian Liu, Hui Li, Wei Li, Dingwei He, Liqing Yao, Xue Yang","doi":"10.1186/s12984-026-02002-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-026-02002-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147774115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}