Injuries affecting the central nervous system may disrupt neural pathways to muscles causing motor deficits. Yet the brain exhibits sensorimotor rhythms (SMRs) during movement intents, and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can decode SMRs to control assistive devices and promote functional recovery. However, non-invasive BCIs suffer from the instability of SMRs, requiring longitudinal training for users to learn proper SMR modulation. Here, we accelerate this skill learning process by applying cervical transcutaneous electrical spinal stimulation (TESS) to inhibit the motor cortex prior to longitudinal upper-limb BCI training. Results support a mechanistic role for cortical inhibition in significantly increasing focality and strength of SMRs leading to accelerated BCI control in healthy subjects and an individual with spinal cord injury. Improvements were observed following only two TESS sessions and were maintained for at least one week in users who could not otherwise achieve control. Our findings provide promising possibilities for advancing BCI-based motor rehabilitation.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

NCT05183152

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05183152

This work was partially supported by the Coleman Fung Foundation.

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IRB of The University of Texas at Austin gave approval for this work (IRB protocol number: 2020-03-0073), and the study protocol is published on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05183152)

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