NeuralCipher Research overview
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Parkinson's disease (PD) is commonly treated with pharmacological or physical therapies, which are often associated with side effects. Combining motor imagery (MI) with neurofeedback (NFB) offers a potential complementary non-pharmacological therapy. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-guided NFB protocol that integrates MI of whole-body movements with changes in deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration (d[HbR]) to alleviate motor symptoms of PD.Three groups (N = 19 each) completed four training sessions. The NFB group, consisting of healthy older adults, and the PD-NFB group performed MI tasks with NFB based on supplementary motor area (SMA) activity, while the noNFB group of healthy older adults performed MI without NFB.Participants in the NFB groups generally reported positive perceptions of NFB controllability. The NFB group showed a significant increase in SMA activation compared to the noNFB group and, in part, for baseline MI compared to NFB MI. No significant differences were found between the NFB and PD-NFB groups. There was no significant difference between NFB training and baseline MI in the PD group.This study is the first to investigate fNIRS-guided NFB combining MI with d[HbR] to enhance SMA activation. The results suggest potential of the studied protocol for motor neurorehabilitation, but simultaneously highlight the need for further refinement and research.
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