Bibliometric Analysis of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) as a Neurofeedback Tool in Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) Systems

In the last few years, recent advances in alternative methods for neurorehabilitation have witnessed outstanding progress including electrical stimulation (ES) and its derivative functional electrical stimulation (FES), a treatment that applies a transcutaneous electrical current to induce muscle contractions and is commonly used in individuals with motor disabilities, such as poststroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), and spinal cord injury (SCI). Similarly, brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have been shown to be a powerful tool in rehabilitation processes specifically for people in motor disabilities situations or injuries associated with the brain. By doing a bibliometric analysis, this work presents some of the most important advances in the integration of these two approaches, BCI and FES, for motor recovery showing at the same time their main aspects, the most used methods and future challenges. The bibliometric analysis allows researchers to identify possible ways to explore current developments, challenges and future perspectives of a specific field of study. Scopus tool and open software VOSviewer were used. As a result, it is concluded that FES is a technique applied in different scenarios from sports and fitness, robotics, and physical therapy, among others, and that the integration of this technology with a BCI‐based control could improve neurorehabilitation processes.