The Path to Exercise Rehabilitation Driven by Brain-Computer Interface Technology - Applications, Bottlenecks and Ethical Considerations

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology provides revolutionary rehabilitation for patients with motor dysfunction, such as the paralyzed and stroke populations, by establishing a direct communication pathway between the brain and external devices. This paper focuses on the current status, technical bottlenecks, and future directions of BCI applications in motor control. It systematically analyzes the clinical translational potential of invasive and non-invasive BCIs. Invasive BCIs like the Brain Gate system can significantly improve paralyzed patients mechanical limb control ability. In contrast, non-invasive BCIs combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) can enhance the function of upper limbs in patients with strokes. The technical bottlenecks of BCI include defective preprocessing processes, real-time delays, and ethical risks related to data privacy and surgical infections. In the future, we must integrate and optimize the decoding while establishing a neurological rights framework to guarantee patient autonomy. BCI will reshape the paradigm of motor rehabilitation, and its clinical value depends on the synergistic breakthrough of signal stability and ethical barriers, which will promote the translation of laboratory results into widespread medical practice.