Neural Noise

fNIRS-guided rehabilitation in refractory post-traumatic dysphagia

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  • A case report describes fNIRS-guided rehabilitation in refractory post-traumatic dysphagia.1
  • The application illustrates neuroimaging-guided intervention for motor/swallow rehabilitation.1
  • Reported in Frontiers; tier-2, case-level evidence.1 1

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

  • The case involves a 15-year-old boy with severe dysphagia persisting nine months after severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), still dependent on tracheostomy and nasogastric feeding at readmission.2 3
  • Prior treatments had failed: two botulinum toxin injections and a 35-day multimodal rehabilitation program produced no meaningful improvement, and he presented with profound swallowing impairment, malnutrition, and poor treatment tolerance.2 3
  • fNIRS was used to map cortical activation during swallowing and select training methods targeting responsive brain regions, providing real-time neurophysiological guidance for precision rehabilitation planning.2
  • Imaging used the NirSmart system (Danyang Huichuang Medical Devices Co., Ltd., China) to monitor cortical hemodynamic responses.2
  • After 42 days of fNIRS-guided therapy, the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) rose from level I to VI and the Penetration-Aspiration Scale (PAS) fell from 8 (severe) to 2.2 3
  • By day 77 the patient was successfully weaned from both the nasogastric feeding tube and the tracheostomy, regaining independent oral intake and spontaneous breathing.2
  • Published in Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences (Wang X, Guo L, Wang Y, Ma W, Wang L, Yan Y, Yin Y, 2025), volume 6:1712962, DOI 10.3389/fresc.2025.1712962.3 4
  • Evidence level and BCI implication: this is single-case (tier-2) evidence, but it illustrates fNIRS neurofeedback/neuroimaging-guided targeting as a route to individualized rehabilitation for refractory swallowing deficits after brain injury.2 3

Footnotes

  1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiowFBVV95cUxNUHBGWDRsTk9fSzVwTHZwWlM5OEIyMk14WnFYZ2piLXl1Tkp2YUtJQWJ6My0xNlNkS252dDRHMExOcEhIcWhreTdTd29YTE5FYkxsSEJYSU4tLTJlNHlJalRtRkFvN2VVMU42a0Jfcm1vLXhaWWd6SU9NU1hzSWUzbG1tZnVmNV9DaS15bm1GQzRhbl9VYmpEcTQ0Zko2SWk5N1E0?oc=5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/rehabilitation-sciences/articles/10.3389/fresc.2025.1712962/full ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2025.1712962 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. https://public-pages-files-2025.frontiersin.org/journals/rehabilitation-sciences/articles/10.3389/fresc.2025.1712962/text ↩

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