Background Hand rehabilitation is core to helping stroke survivors regain activities of daily living. Recent studies have suggested that the use of electroencephalography-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) can promote this process. Here, we report the first systematic examination of the literature on the use of BCI-robot systems for the rehabilitation of fine motor skills associated with hand movement and profile these systems from a technical and clinical perspective. Methods A search for January 2010–October 2019 articles using Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, PEDro, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore and Cochrane Library databases was performed. The selection criteria included BCI-hand robotic systems for rehabilitation at different stages of development involving tests on healthy participants or people who have had a stroke. Data fields include those related to study design, participant characteristics, technical specifications of the system, and clinical outcome measures. Results 30 studies were identified as eligible for qualitative review and among these, 11 studies involved testing a BCI-hand robot on chronic and subacute stroke patients. Statistically significant improvements in motor assessment scores relative to controls were observed for three BCI-hand robot interventions. The degree of robot control for the majority of studies was limited to triggering the device to perform grasping or pinching movements using motor imagery. Most employed a combination of kinaesthetic and visual response via the robotic device and display screen, respectively, to match feedback to motor imagery. Conclusion 19 out of 30 studies on BCI-robotic systems for hand rehabilitation report systems at prototype or pre-clinical stages of development. We identified large heterogeneity in reporting and emphasise the need to develop a standard protocol for assessing technical and clinical outcomes so that the necessary evidence base on efficiency and efficacy can be developed.

Electroencephalography-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) that allow the control of robotic devices to support stroke patients during upper limb rehabilitation are increasingly popular. Hand rehabilitation is focused on improving dexterity and fine motor control and is a core approach for helping stroke survivors regain activities of daily living. This systematic review examines recent developments in BCI-robotic systems for hand rehabilitation and identifies evidence-based clinical studies on stroke patients. A search for January 2010-October 2019 articles using Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, PEDro, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore and Cochrane Library databases was performed. The selection criteria included BCI-hand robotic systems for rehabilitation in various development stages involving tests on healthy human subjects or stroke survivors. Data fields include those related to study design, participant characteristics, technical specifications of the system, and clinical outcome measures. 30 studies were identified as eligible for qualitative review and among these, 11 studies involved testing a BCI-hand robot on chronic and subacute stroke patients. Statistically significant improvements in motor assessment scores relative to controls were observed for two BCI-hand robot interventions. The degree of robot control for the majority of studies was limited to triggering the device to perform grasping or pinching movements using motor imagery. Most employed a combination of kinaesthetic and visual response via the robotic device and display screen, respectively, to match feedback to motor imagery. Most studies on BCI-robotic systems for hand rehabilitation report systems at prototype or pre-clinical stages of development. Some studies report statistically significant improvements in functional recovery after stroke, but there is a need to develop a standard protocol for assessing technical and clinical outcomes so that the necessary evidence base on efficiency and efficacy can be developed.

Sleep has been shown to play a role in cognition, and more specifically in the long-term consolidation of recently acquired memories (Stickgold, 2005;Walker & Stickgold, 2010). A plethora of research has linked sleepdependent consolidation to slow-wave sleep (SWS), a period of nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep classified by slow oscillations (SOs).SOs are neural oscillations in the ~0.8 Hz range that have amplitudes greater than 75µV (Bazhenov, Timofeev, Steriade, & Sejnowski, 2002).The active systems consolidation model of memory consolidation posits that reactivation of recently acquired neural representations is necessary for transformation and integration of long-lasting memory traces from the hippocampus to the neocortex (Born & Wilhelm, 2012;Diekelmann & Born, 2010). There is growing empirical evidence to support the idea that SWS plays a critical role in this process (Peigneux et al., 2004). For example, neurons have been shown to fire in precisely the same temporal order during SWS as during the learning experience (Lee & Wilson, 2002), and there is

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