The neuronal loss resulting from stroke forces 80% of the patients to undergo motor rehabilitation, for which Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and NeuroFeedback (NF) can be used. During the rehabilitation, when patients attempt or imagine performing a movement, BCIs/NF provide them with a synchronized sensory (e.g., tactile) feedback based on their sensorimotor-related brain activity that aims at fostering brain plasticity and motor recovery. The co-activation of ascending (i.e., somatosensory) and descending (i.e., motor) networks indeed enables significant functional motor improvement, together with significant sensorimotor-related neurophysiological changes. Somatosensory abilities are essential for patients to perceive the feedback provided by the BCI system. Thus, somatosensory impairments may significantly alter the efficiency of BCI-based motor rehabilitation. In order to precisely understand and assess the impact of somatosensory impairments, we first review the literature on post-stroke BCI-based motor rehabilitation (14 randomized clinical trials). We show that despite the central role that somatosensory abilities play on BCI-based motor rehabilitation post-stroke, the latter are rarely reported and used as inclusion/exclusion criteria in the literature on the matter. We then argue that somatosensory abilities have repeatedly been shown to influence the motor rehabilitation outcome, in general. This stresses the importance of also considering them and reporting them in the literature in BCI-based rehabilitation after stroke, especially since half of post-stroke patients suffer from somatosensory impairments. We argue that somatosensory abilities should systematically be assessed, controlled and reported if we want to precisely assess the influence they have on BCI efficiency. Not doing so could result in the misinterpretation of reported results, while doing so could improve (1) our understanding of the mechanisms underlying motor recovery (2) our ability to adapt the therapy to the patients’ impairments and (3) our comprehension of the between-subject and between-study variability of therapeutic outcomes mentioned in the literature.

中风导致的神经元损失迫使 80% 的患者接受运动康复，可以使用脑机接口 (BCI) 和神经反馈 (NF)。在康复过程中，当患者尝试或想象进行某项运动时，BCIs/NF 根据其感觉运动相关的大脑活动为他们提供同步的感觉（例如触觉）反馈，旨在促进大脑可塑性和运动恢复。上行（即体感）和下行（即运动）网络的共同激活确实能够显着提高功能性运动，以及显着的感觉运动相关的神经生理学变化。体感能力对于患者感知 BCI 系统提供的反馈至关重要。因此，体感障碍可能会显着改变基于脑机接口的运动康复的效率。为了准确理解和评估体感障碍的影响，我们首先回顾了中风后基于 BCI 的运动康复文献（14 项随机临床试验）。我们表明，尽管体感能力在基于 BCI 的中风后运动康复中发挥着核心作用，但后者很少被报道并在有关该问题的文献中用作纳入/排除标准。然后我们认为，体感能力已多次被证明会影响一般的运动康复结果。这强调了在中风后基于 BCI 的康复文献中考虑和报告它们的重要性，特别是因为一半的中风后患者患有体感障碍。 我们认为，如果我们想精确评估体感能力对 BCI 效率的影响，就应该系统地评估、控制和报告。不这样做可能会导致对报告结果的误解，而这样做可以提高（1）我们对运动恢复机制的理解（2）我们根据患者的损伤调整治疗的能力以及（3）我们对运动恢复机制的理解文献中提到的治疗结果的受试者间和研究间变异性。