Cognitive Rehabilitation of Patients with Acute Cerebrovascular Accident Using EEG-Guided Adaptive Neurostimulation

The methodology of digital psychophysiological mapping was used in a group of 18 stroke patients and a matched group of healthy controls to reveal possible markers of acute cerebrovascular accident. The patients were found to have a number of indicators that were significantly different from the norm and could claim the role of stroke biomarkers. Among them there are lowered values of the power and peak frequency of the EEG alpha rhythm, significantly lowered HRV indices, as well as a significantly higher levels of emotional disadaptation. Stroke patients participated in a treatment session, in which they were exposed to EEG-based bimodal (light-musical) adaptive neurostimulation, in which some EEG characteristics (EEG oscillators) control sound (musical) stimulation, and other EEG characteristics (native EEG) simultaneously control light stimulation. As a result of the treatment, patients demonstrated a normalization of all the described indicators of the functional state: the values of a power and frequency of the EEG alpha rhythm significantly increased and approached the norm, as well as the parameters of the cardiovascular system and the cognitive-emotional sphere of stroke patients. The method of EEG-guided adaptive neurostimulation used in this work demonstrates the possibility of effective cognitive rehabilitation of stroke patients even with a single application.