Can amputees control a brain-computer interface with their missing hand

Discussion: Amputee subjects were able to control a BCI with very high performance, using their missing hand, in both cue-based and free-choice BCI. Their performance with the missing hand was identical to their performance in their missing hand, and their overall performance was nearly identical to that of able bodied control subjects. This performance is possible despite a reduction in the corresponding brain activation; Fig. 1 shows an example from one amputee subject; two others had similar activation patterns.Significance: The study shows successful BCI, including a complex navigation task, using cortical networks of body parts following amputation. Our real-time fMRI method allows studying residual brain activations systematically in clinical populations, in the context of actual BCI performance.Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the European Union FP7 project VERE (657295).