Paolo Scoppola

Applicazione BCI – Software per terapia neuroriablitiativa per il morbo di Parkinson – realizzato in collaborazione con il centro Brainew di Trieste – 2011

One of the main problems in patients with Parkinson’s disease, is the difficulty to perform motor actions. They want to do something but the body does not respond to commands. Parkinson Neuro Therapy offers the possibility to send these commands to a computer that displays the desired action. The goal of therapy is to strengthen the connection between thought and action, through an interactive visual stimulation.

EVENTS

XX Congresso Nazionale SIPF, Venice, 22-24.11.2012

A neurofeedback protocol for Parkinson patients based on Brain-Computer Interface

M.M. Turconi (1), S. Mezzarobba (2), P. Scoppola (1), J. Jarmolowska (1), P. Busan (1), P.P. Battaglini (1)

1. B.R.A.I.N. Center for Neuroscience, Department of Life Science – University of Trieste.
2. Degree in Physiotherapy – University of Trieste

Objectives: Parkinson’s disease (PD) can be supported by neurorehabilitation strategies, such as neurofeedback (NF). An efficient way to give NF to PD patients is motor imagery (MI): an action is mentally reproduced without being translated into a motor output. NF is a fundamental substrate of any Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI, Fig.1). BCI is a system that, excluding the normal output pathways (muscles and nerves) allows to drive an external device using brain signal: it is possible to identify brain signal changes called sensorimotor rhythms (SMRs), that occur when an user makes a MI exercise, and use them for NF. A SMRs-based NF treatment can be useful to enhance motor strategies in case of freezing episodes, and to improve cognitive functions (working memory and movement planning).

continue…