Influence of Vibrotactile Feedback on the Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) Induced by Motor Imagery

Motor imagery brain-computer interface (MI BCI) is a rapidly developing method of rehabilitation after a stroke. The presence of feedback is an essential point in closing the disturbed sensorimotor loop for the patients. In this work, we investigate motor cortex excitability changes after training with BCI, resulting in motor evoked potentials (MEPs). Seven healthy subjects took part in three experimental conditions: I) direct vibrotactile feedback while training; II) control session with constant vibration; III) BCI training without feedback Special attention was paid to classification accuracy, degree of desynchronization, and MEP measurements. The study has shown that the absence of the feedback does not influence the classification accuracy. The desynchronization degree was significantly higher (p<; 0,05) for all the subjects in the experiments with the feedback, meanwhile, there was no significant difference in MEPs.