To date, many wrist actimetric variables dedicated to measuring the upper limbs (UL) in post-stroke patients have been developed but very few comparisons have been made between them. The objective of this study was to compare different actimetric variables of the ULs between a stroke and healthy population. Accelerometers were worn continuously for a period of 7 days on both...
Freezing of gait (FOG) is an unpredictable gait arrest that hampers the lives of 40% of people with Parkinson’s disease. Because the symptom is heterogeneous in phenotypical presentation (it can present as trembling/shuffling, or akinesia) and manifests during various circumstances (it can be triggered by e.g. turning, passing doors, and dual-tasking), it is particularly...
Hip muscles play a prominent role in compensating for the loss of ankle and/or knee muscle function after lower limb amputation. Despite contributions to walking and balance, there is no consensus regarding hip strength deficits in lower limb prosthesis (LLP) users. Identifying patterns of hip muscle weakness in LLP users may increase the specificity of physical therapy...
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disabilities resulting from cognitive and neurological deficits, as well as psychological disorders. Only recently, preclinical research on electrical stimulation methods as a potential treatment of TBI sequelae has gained more traction. However, the underlying mechanisms of the anticipated improvements induced by these methods...
Advanced upper limb prostheses aim to restore coordinated hand and arm function. However, this objective can be difficult to quantify as coordinated movements require an intact visuomotor system. Eye tracking has recently been applied to study the visuomotor behaviours of upper limb prosthesis users by enabling the calculation of eye movement metrics. This scoping review aims to...
In clinical and research settings, hand dexterity is often assessed as finger individuation, or the ability to move one finger at a time. Despite its clinical importance, there is currently no standardized, sufficiently sensitive, or fully objective platform for these evaluations. Here we developed two novel individuation scores and tested them against a previously developed...
People diagnosed with neurological pathology may experience gait disorders that affect their quality of life. In recent years, research has been carried out on a variety of exoskeletons in this population. However, the satisfaction perceived by the users of these devices is not known. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to evaluate the satisfaction perceived by users...
The characterization of both limbs’ behaviour in prosthetic gait is of key importance for improving the prosthetic components and increasing the biomechanical capability of trans-femoral amputees. When characterizing human gait, modular motor control theories have been proven to be powerful in providing a compact description of the gait patterns. In this paper, the planar...
The characterization of both limbs’ behaviour in prosthetic gait is of key importance for improving the prosthetic components and increasing the biomechanical capability of trans-femoral amputees. When characterizing human gait, modular motor control theories have been proven to be powerful in providing a compact description of the gait patterns. In this paper, the planar...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease without known cure. However, early medical treatment can help control its progression and postpone intellectual decay. Since AD is preceded by a period of cognitive deterioration, the effective assessment of cognitive capabilities is crucial to develop reliable screening procedures. For this purpose, cognitive tests are...
Ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) are extensively used as a primary management method to assist ambulation of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). However, there are certain barriers that hinder their prescription as well as their use as a mobility device in all kinds of daily-life activities. This exploratory research attempts to further understand the existing limitations of current...
Robotic lower-limb exoskeletons have the potential to provide additional clinical benefits for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, high variability between protocols does not allow the comparison of study results on safety and feasibility between different exoskeletons. We therefore incorporated key aspects from previous studies into our study protocol and accordingly...
Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals have been utilized in a variety of medical as well as engineering applications. However, one of the challenges associated with recording EEG data is the difficulty of recording large amounts of data. Consequently, data augmentation is a potential solution to overcome this challenge in which the objective is to increase the amount of data...
The aging of the population and the progressive increase in life expectancy in developed countries is leading to a high incidence of cerebrovascular diseases. Several studies have demonstrated that robot-assisted rehabilitation therapies combined with serious games can improve rehabilitation outcomes. Social interaction in the form of multiplayer games has been highlighted as a...
This study aims to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the effect of virtual reality-based therapy (VRBT) on balance dimensions and fear of falling in patients with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Secondarily, to determine the most recommendable dose of VRBT to improve balance. PubMed Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL and PEDro were screened, without publication date restrictions...
Machine-learning-based myocontrol of prosthetic devices suffers from a high rate of abandonment due to dissatisfaction with the training procedure and with the reliability of day-to-day control. Incremental myocontrol is a promising approach as it allows on-demand updating of the system, thus enforcing continuous interaction with the user. Nevertheless, a long-term study...
To verify whether conventional rehabilitation combined with specific virtual reality is more effective than conventional therapy alone in restoring hand motor function and muscle tone after stroke. This prospective single-blind randomized controlled trial compared conventional rehabilitation based on physiotherapy and occupational therapy (control group) with the combination of...
Paretic propulsion [measured as anteriorly-directed ground reaction forces (AGRF)] and trailing limb angle (TLA) show robust inter-relationships, and represent two key modifiable post-stroke gait variables that have biomechanical and clinical relevance. Our recent work demonstrated that real-time biofeedback is a feasible paradigm for modulating AGRF and TLA in able-bodied...
The introduction of technology-assisted rehabilitation (TAR) uncovers promising challenges for the treatment of motor disorders, particularly if combined with exergaming. Patients with neurological diseases have proved to benefit from TAR, improving their performance in several activities. However, the subjective perception of the device has never been fully addressed, being a...
In recent years, ambulatory lower limb exoskeletons are being gradually introduced into the clinical practice to complement walking rehabilitation programs. However, the clinical evidence of the outcomes attained with these devices is still limited and nonconclusive. Furthermore, the user-to-robot adaptation mechanisms responsible for functional improvement are still not...
Few studies have systematically investigated robust controllers for lower limb rehabilitation exoskeletons (LLREs) that can safely and effectively assist users with a variety of neuromuscular disorders to walk with full autonomy. One of the key challenges for developing such a robust controller is to handle different degrees of uncertain human-exoskeleton interaction forces from...
Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a debilitating neuropsychological syndrome that often follows brain injury, in particular a stroke affecting the right hemisphere. In current clinical practice, the assessment of neglect is based on old-fashioned paper-and-pencil and behavioral tasks, and sometimes relies on the examiner’s subjective judgment. Therefore, there is a need for...
Coordinated control between the bilateral ankle joints plays an important role in performing daily life functions, such as walking and running. However, few studies have explored the impact of stroke on movement disorders that decrease the coordination control of the bilateral extremities and may decrease daily activities that require coordination control of the bilateral ankles...
During the Cybathlon Global Edition 2020, athletes compete in a Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) bike race. In this event, athletes with a spinal cord injury cover a distance of 1200 m on an adapted bike by using electrostimulation to activate their leg muscles in order to evoke a pedalling movement. This report reviews the training regimen, as designed by the PULSE Racing...
Concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries are the most common causes of physical and cognitive disability worldwide. Concussion can result in post-injury vestibular and balance impairments that can present up to five years post initial concussion event, ultimately affecting many daily and functional activities. While current clinical treatment aims to reduce symptoms, the...