Persons with a transfemoral amputation (TFA) often experience difficulties in daily-life ambulation, including an asymmetrical and less stable gait pattern and a greater cognitive demand of walking. However, it remains unclear whether this is effected by the prosthetic suspension, as eliminating the non-rigid prosthetic connection may influence stability and cortical activity...
The regulation of gait is critical to many activities of everyday life. When walking, somatosensory information obtained from mechanoreceptors throughout body is delivered to numerous supraspinal networks and used to execute the appropriate motion to meet ever-changing environmental and task demands. Aging and age-related conditions oftentimes alter the supraspinal sensorimotor...
Although clinical and functional impairments in the lower limbs have been extensively studied in patients with MS, the upper limb (UL) are also frequently affected. Clinical impairment of the UL in patients with MS is very common with muscle strength and hand dexterity as critical factors in maintaining functional activities that are the basis for independence and quality of life...
Children and adolescents with neuromotor disorders need regular physical activity to maintain optimal health and functional independence throughout their development. To this end, reliable measures of physical activity are integral to both assessing habitual physical activity and testing the efficacy of the many interventions designed to increase physical activity in these...
To investigate the resting-state cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) rhythms and networks in patients with chronic stroke and examine their correlation with motor functions of the hemiplegic upper limb. Resting-state EEG data from 22 chronic stroke patients were compared to EEG data from 19 age-matched and 16 younger-age healthy controls. The EEG rhythmic powers and network...
Despite technical advances in the field of wearable robotic devices (WRD), there is still limited user acceptance of these technologies. While usability often comes as a key factor influencing acceptance, there is a scattered landscape of definitions and scopes for the term. To advance usability evaluation, and to integrate usability features as design requirements during...
Omnidirectional treadmills (ODTs) offer a promising solution to the virtual reality (VR) locomotion problem, which describes the mismatch between visual and somatosensory information and contributes to VR sickness. However, little is known about how walking on ODTs impacts the biomechanics of gait. This project aimed to compare overground and ODT walking and turning in healthy...
The number of people who need to use wheelchair for proper mobility is increasing. The integration of technology into these devices enables the simultaneous and objective assessment of posture, while also facilitating the concurrent monitoring of the functional status of wheelchair users. In this way, both the health personnel and the user can be provided with relevant...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurogenerative disorder implicated in dysfunctions of motor functions, particularly gait and balance. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation offered as a potential adjuvant therapy for PD. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to identify whether tDCS alone and combined with additional...
Older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are often subject to cognitive and gait deficits. Interactive Computerized Cognitive Training (ICCT) may improve cognitive function; however, the effect of such training on gait performance is limited. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) improves cognition and gait performance. It remains unclear whether combining tDCS...
Parkinson’s disease targets patients’ cognitive and motor abilities, including postural control. Many studies have been carried out to introduce mathematical models for a better understanding of postural control in such patients and the relation between the model parameters and the clinical assessments. So far, these studies have addressed this connection merely in static tests...
In 2023, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) brought together engineers, scientists, and clinicians by sponsoring a conference on computational modelling in neurorehabiilitation. To facilitate multidisciplinary collaborations and improve patient care, in this perspective piece we identify where and how computational modelling can...
Freezing of gait (FOG) is an episodic and highly disabling symptom of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Traditionally, FOG assessment relies on time-consuming visual inspection of camera footage. Therefore, previous studies have proposed portable and automated solutions to annotate FOG. However, automated FOG assessment is challenging due to gait variability caused by medication effects...
Exoskeleton-aided active rehabilitation is a process that requires sensing and acting upon the motion intentions of the user. Typically, force sensors are used for this. However, they increase the weight and cost of these wearable devices. This paper presents the methodology for detecting users’ intentions only with encoders integrated with the drives. It is unique compared to...
Lack of standardized assessments that explicitly quantify performance during prosthetic grip selection poses difficulty determining whether efforts to improve the design of multi-grip hands and their control approaches are successful. In this study, we developed and validated a novel assessment of multi-grip prosthetic performance: The Coffee Task. Individuals without limb loss...
Practicing clinicians in neurorehabilitation continue to lack a systematic evidence base to personalize rehabilitation therapies to individual patients and thereby maximize outcomes. Computational modeling— collecting, analyzing, and modeling neurorehabilitation data— holds great promise. A key question is how can computational modeling contribute to the evidence base for...
In recognition of the importance and timeliness of computational models for accelerating progress in neurorehabilitation, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored a conference in March 2023 at the University of Southern California that drew global participation from engineers, scientists, clinicians, and trainees. This...
Although some studies suggest that robot-assisted technology can significantly improve upper limb function in stroke patients compared to traditional rehabilitation training, it is still necessary to incorporate an auxiliary intervention to alleviate negative emotions, thereby alleviating the post-stroke fatigue and encouraging patients to actively respond to rehabilitation...
Computerized posturography obtained in standing conditions has been applied to classify fall risk for older adults or disease groups. Combining machine learning (ML) approaches is superior to traditional regression analysis for its ability to handle complex data regarding its characteristics of being high-dimensional, non-linear, and highly correlated. The study goal was to use...
Children with a unilateral congenital below elbow deficiency (UCBED) have one typical upper limb and one that lacks a hand, ending below the elbow at the proximal/mid forearm. UCBED is an isolated condition, and affected children otherwise develop normal sensorimotor control. Unlike adults with upper limb absence, the majority of whom have an acquired loss, children with UCBED...
Chronicity and lack of motivation often go together during the upper limb rehabilitation process in stroke. Virtual reality is a useful tool in this context, providing safe, intensive, individualised treatments in a playful environment. B-cost, easy-to-use devices with personalised and motivating games for a specific population seem to be the most effective option in the...
Restorative Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCI) that combine motor imagery with visual feedback and functional electrical stimulation (FES) may offer much-needed treatment alternatives for patients with severely impaired upper limb (UL) function after a stroke. This study aimed to examine if BCI-based training, combining motor imagery with FES targeting finger/wrist extensors, is...