Article
Automation & Control Systems
Yeser Meziani, Yann Morere, Amine Hadj-Abdelkader, Mohammed Benmansour, Guy Bourhis
Summary: Dynamic assessment of rehabilitation performance is necessary to tailor training processes for individual patient needs. Kinematic measures provide an objective scale to track upper limb rehabilitation progress effectively. Adopting new metrics in kinematic assessment promises more individualized patient care and requires less data to detect significant changes.
CONTROL ENGINEERING PRACTICE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Adriana Cancrini, Paolo Baitelli, Matteo Lavit Nicora, Matteo Malosio, Alessandra Pedrocchi, Alessandro Scano
Summary: This study investigates the effect of robot assistance on task performance and muscle synergies in healthy individuals. The results show that assistance improves task performance but has limited impact on muscle synergies.
Article
Neurosciences
Irene Aprile, Giulia Guardati, Valeria Cipollini, Dionysia Papadopoulou, Serena Monteleone, Alessandra Redolfi, Romina Garattini, Gianluigi Sacella, Fulvia Noro, Silvia Galeri, Maria Chiara Carrozza, Marco Germanotta
Summary: This study found that cognitive functions have an impact on the rehabilitation outcomes of stroke patients undergoing robotic upper limb rehabilitation. Deficits in spatial attention and executive functions affected improvement in daily living and mobility, while deficits in language, number processing, and spatial attention reduced gains in motor function.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Nicola Postol, Neil J. Spratt, Andrew Bivard, Jodie Marquez
Summary: This study evaluated the feasibility of therapy with a free-standing exoskeleton for individuals with SCI and found potential health benefits for a small subset of patients. Participants showed positive trends in function and other outcomes, and the intervention was highly acceptable to all. Further research is needed to determine the characteristics of patients most likely to benefit from this intervention.
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Mark Andrew Wright, Franziska Herzog, Anna Mas-Vinyals, Alfons Carnicero-Carmona, Joan Lobo-Prat, Cornelia Hensel, Steffen Franz, Norbert Weidner, Joan Vidal, Eloy Opisso, Ruediger Rupp
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the safety, feasibility, and usability of the ABLE Exoskeleton for individuals with spinal cord injury in clinical settings. The results show that safe gait training with the ABLE Exoskeleton in hospital settings improves clinical outcomes for persons with SCI. The study protocol allows for consistent comparison with other exoskeleton trials and can serve as a framework for standardizing early clinical evaluations.
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
(2023)
Review
Engineering, Biomedical
Elena Bardi, Marta Gandolla, Francesco Braghin, Ferruccio Resta, Alessandra L. G. Pedrocchi, Emilia Ambrosini
Summary: Soft robotic wearable devices, known as exosuits, have great potential for daily upper limb support as an alternative to rigid exoskeletons. This review explores the current approaches in design and production steps, focusing on different actuation types and intention detection strategies to support key joints such as elbow and shoulder.
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Ruben Carino-Escobar, Raquel Valdes-Cristerna, Paul Carrillo-Mora, Marlene A. Rodriguez-Barragan, Claudia Hernandez-Arenas, Jimena Quinzanos-Fresnedo, Oscar Arias-Carrion, Jessica Cantillo-Negrete
Summary: This study showed that it is possible to predict upper limb recovery after stroke using solely physiological information, highlighting the importance of measuring cortical activity related to motor control processes, the unaffected hemisphere's integrity, and upper limb strength. The Regression Tree Ensemble method used in this study can also be applied to analyze physiological relationships with recovery, offering a new approach to prognosis.
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Giovanni Morone, Alessandro de Sire, Alex Martino Cinnera, Matteo Paci, Luca Perrero, Marco Invernizzi, Lorenzo Lippi, Michela Agostini, Irene Aprile, Emanuela Casanova, Dario Marino, Giuseppe La Rosa, Federica Bressi, Silvia Sterzi, Daniele Giansanti, Alberto Battistini, Sandra Miccinilli, Serena Filoni, Monica Sicari, Salvatore Petrozzino, Claudio Marcello Solaro, Stefano Gargano, Paolo Benanti, Paolo Boldrini, Donatella Bonaiuti, Enrico Castelli, Francesco Draicchio, Vincenzo Falabella, Silvia Galeri, Francesca Gimigliano, Mauro Grigioni, Stefano Mazzoleni, Stefano Mazzon, Franco Molteni, Maurizio Petrarca, Alessandro Picelli, Marialuisa Gandolfi, Federico Posteraro, Michele Senatore, Giuseppe Turchetti, Sofia Straudi
Summary: This review systematically reported the evidence-based, state-of-the-art on clinical applications and robotic-assisted arm training (RAT) in motor and functional recovery in subjects affected by cervical spinal cord injury. RAT was found to be feasible and safe, with initial positive effects on arm function and quality of movement. However, the generalizability of study results may be affected by the high clinical heterogeneity of treatment programs and the variety of robot devices used.
Article
Immunology
Emma Schmidt, Pamela Raposo, Romana Vavrek, Karim Fouad
Summary: Inflammation can enhance neuronal sprouting and recovery in rats following spinal cord injury, and systemic lipopolysaccharide treatment in the subacute stage can improve the recovery of the ipsilesional forelimb.
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Ophelie Pila, Typhaine Koeppel, Anne-Gaelle Grosmaire, Christophe Duret
Summary: This retrospective study compared two doses of an upper limb rehabilitation program combining robot-assisted therapy and occupational therapy on motor recovery and costs after stroke. The results showed similar motor improvements following two doses of movement-based training. Reducing session time did not affect the intensity of the practice and met economic constraints.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Olivier Remy-Neris, Anais Le Jeannic, Angelina Dion, Beatrice Medee, Emmanuel Nowak, Elodie Poiroux, Isabelle Durand-Zaleski
Summary: In patients with moderate-to-severe impairment in the subacute phase of stroke, the purchase and use of complex devices to provide additional upper limb training may not be necessary: simply educating patients to regularly move and stretch their limbs appears sufficient.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Neil Fleming, Clare Taylor, Mark Etzelmueller, Conor Gill, Clodagh O'Keeffe, Nicholas Mahony, Richard B. Reilly
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the effects of cervical tSCS on upper-limb function and the importance of stimulation parameters. The results showed that altering stimulus location and intensity can achieve unilateral motor pool selectivity, and optimizing these parameters can improve the efficacy of this neuromodulation method in clinical populations.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marc P. P. Powell, Nikhil Verma, Erynn Sorensen, Erick Carranza, Amy Boos, Daryl P. P. Fields, Souvik Roy, Scott Ensel, Beatrice Barra, Jeffrey Balzer, Jeff Goldsmith, Robert M. M. Friedlander, George F. F. Wittenberg, Lee E. E. Fisher, John W. W. Krakauer, Peter C. C. Gerszten, Elvira Pirondini, Douglas J. J. Weber, Marco Capogrosso
Summary: Cerebral strokes can cause permanent motor deficits in the arm and hand by disrupting the communication between the motor cortex and the spinal cord. However, the spinal circuits below the lesion remain intact and can be targeted for neurotechnologies to restore movement. This first-in-human study shows promising evidence that electrical stimulation of cervical spinal circuits can improve arm and hand motor control in chronic post-stroke hemiparesis.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Alicja Widuch-Spodyniuk, Beata Tarnacka, Bogumil Korczynski, Justyna Wisniowska
Summary: Innovative rehabilitation methods, such as robotic-assisted gait therapy (RAGT), have shown positive effects on the improvement of depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with spinal cord injuries (SCIs).
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
I Aprile, M. Germanotta, A. Cruciani, C. Pecchioli, S. Loreti, D. Papadopoulou, A. Montesano, S. Galeri, M. Diverio, C. Falsini, G. Speranza, E. Langone, M. C. Carrozza, F. Cecchi
Summary: The study investigated the prevalence of poststroke shoulder pain and its relationship with the neuropathic component, as well as its impact on upper limb motor function, strength, disability, and quality of life. Results showed that shoulder pain can negatively affect motor performance and quality of life, but can be reduced after rehabilitation treatment.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STROKE
(2021)
Article
Rehabilitation
Hardeep Singh, Kristin Musselman, Tracey J. F. Colella, Katherine S. McGilton, Andrea Iaboni, Mark Bayley, Jose Zariffa
Summary: This study explored how data pertaining to a patient's health, function, and activity in their home/community are collected and used in outpatient rehabilitation, as well as the challenges clinicians face in managing outpatients based on this information. The results identified four main themes: nature of data collection, value of home/community data, perceived drawbacks of current methods, and the importance of improving data collection to understand patient trajectory. These findings can inform the development of solutions to bridge the gap between clinic and community in outpatient rehabilitation.
DISABILITY AND REHABILITATION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Lazar I. Jovanovic, Milos R. Popovic, Cesar Marquez-Chin
Summary: This study evaluated the effectiveness of using band-pass filters in reducing stimulation interference during BCI-FEST. Results showed that SNR values increased for all participants across different types of movements after filtering.
Review
Clinical Neurology
Gustavo Balbinot, Matheus Joner Wiest, Guijin Li, Maureen Pakosh, Julio Cesar Furlan, Sukhvinder Kalsi-Ryan, Jose Zariffa
Summary: This scoping review summarizes the most common sEMG techniques used in clinical practice and research studies on neurorehabilitation after spinal cord injury (SCI). It focuses on the role of sEMG assessments in understanding the effects of neurorehabilitation and discusses the limitations and pitfalls of using sEMG in this field.
CLINICAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Hope Jervis Rademeyer, Cindy Gauthier, Jose Zariffa, Kristen Walden, Tara Jeji, Shane McCullum, Kristin E. Musselman
Summary: This study investigated the use of activity-based therapy (ABT) and its associated technologies by physical therapists (PTs) and occupational therapists (OTs) in Canadian rehabilitation hospitals for individuals with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D). The results identified three themes that influenced therapists' use of ABT and associated technologies, including decision-making approaches, perceived individual factors, and ABT and equipment access. The findings suggest the need for ongoing education and site-specific strategies to promote ABT use in Canadian rehabilitation hospitals.
JOURNAL OF SPINAL CORD MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Ryan G. L. Koh, Jose Zariffa, Leen Jabban, Shih-Cheng Yen, Nick Donaldson, Benjamin W. Metcalfe
Summary: The nervous system enables the regulation of the body and its interactions with the environment through conscious and automatic processes. The peripheral nervous system is an ideal target for technologies aiming to modulate, restore or enhance these abilities. This tutorial provides guidance and introduces a taxonomy for researchers studying peripheral nerve interfaces and signal processing techniques.
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Zhitang Chen, Zheng Dou, Hui Xu, Zhenghua Wang, Suhua Zeng, Xiangyu Yang, Eiki Takahashi, Milos R. Popovic, Lihui Wang, Weidong Li
Summary: This study aimed to decompose the abnormal characteristics of encoding and maintenance in patients with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). The results showed lower performance in depression than the controls. However, the retention performance of the depression group did not further suffer from the short encoding time, unlike the control group.
Article
Rehabilitation
Anita Kaiser, James Sessford, Katherine Chan, Samantha Martin, Shane McCullum, Peter Athanasopoulos, Chris Rice, Jennifer Leo, Scott Forrester, Iona MacRitchie, Jose Zariffa, Kristin E. Musselman
Summary: This study aimed to understand multi-stakeholder perspectives on tracking participation in activity-based therapy (ABT) for individuals with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D). Interviews with 48 individuals from six stakeholder groups revealed the importance and parameters of tracking ABT participation. The findings highlighted the significance of tracking participation for individuals with SCI/D, providing guidance for the development and implementation of ABT practice guidelines in Canada.
DISABILITY AND REHABILITATION
(2023)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Mohammad R. Rezaei, Reza Saadati Fard, Milos R. Popovic, Steven A. Prescott, Milad Lankarany
Summary: This study investigates how an ensemble of homogeneous neurons enables synchrony-division multiplexing (SDM) in response to mixed stimuli. The results show that both synchronous and asynchronous spikes can encode different features of the stimulus, providing insight into the mechanisms of neural multiplexing.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Andrea Bandini, Jose Zariffa
Summary: Egocentric vision applications utilizing wearable cameras have seen significant progress recently due to the availability of affordable equipment and large annotated datasets. The unique perspective offered by these cameras mounted on the head allows for studying and localizing hands, understanding their actions, and developing human-computer interfaces based on hand gestures. This survey categorizes existing approaches into localization, interpretation, and application, and also provides a list of prominent datasets with hand-based annotations.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PATTERN ANALYSIS AND MACHINE INTELLIGENCE
(2023)
Review
Engineering, Biomedical
Ilya Demchenko, Naaz Desai, Stephanie N. Iwasa, Fatemeh Gholamali Nezhad, Jose Zariffa, Sidney H. Kennedy, Nicholas O. Rule, Jeffrey F. Cohn, Milos R. Popovic, Benoit H. Mulsant, Venkat Bhat
Summary: This article provides an overview of functional electrical stimulation (FES) as a potential treatment for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and other disorders of disrupted brain connectivity. Manipulating facial muscles using FES may enhance central neuroplasticity and alleviate the negative interoceptive bias associated with MDD.
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Gustavo Balbinot, Guijin Li, Cindy Gauthier, Kristin E. Musselman, Sukhvinder Kalsi-Ryan, Jose Zariffa
Summary: A pilot study was conducted to examine the effects of functional electrical stimulation therapy (FEST) on neuromuscular factors underlying upper limb function in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The study found that FEST improves muscle strength, activation, and control, and increases cortical drive. This research was conducted at a specialized spinal cord rehabilitation center in Canada.
SPINAL CORD SERIES AND CASES
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Rizaldi A. Fadli, Yuki Yamanouchi, Lazar Jovanovic, Milos R. Popovic, Cesar Marquez-Chin, Taishin Nomura, Matija Milosevic
Summary: This study evaluated the effectiveness of brain-computer interface (BCI)-controlled functional electrical stimulation (FES) in upper limb motor recovery. The findings showed that both M1 and PFC BCI-FES interventions had approximately 80% success rate, but M1 intervention was faster in detecting the activity. Furthermore, only the M1 intervention effectively elicited changes in corticospinal excitability, while cortical excitability measures did not indicate changes after either M1 or PFC BCI-FES.
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Mehdy Dousty, Andrea Bandini, Parvin Eftekhar, David J. Fleet, Jose Zariffa
Summary: The study aimed to investigate the relationship between grasp types used at home and clinical scores. The results showed moderate to strong correlations between reliance on power grasp and clinical scores, while negative correlations were observed between the proportion of non-prehensile grasping and clinical scores. This study provides the first direct demonstration of the importance of hand grasp analysis in the home environment.
NEUROREHABILITATION AND NEURAL REPAIR
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Meng-Fen Tsai, Rosalie H. Wang, Jose Zariffa
Summary: This study aimed to validate the hand use and hand role ratios from egocentric video against standardized clinical upper limb assessments. The results showed significant correlations between hand use ratio and FMA-UE, ARAT, MAL-AoU, and MAL-QoM, while hand role ratio had no significant correlations with these assessments. Therefore, in this sample, hand use ratio extracted from egocentric video was proven to be a valid measure of hand function performance.
NEUROREHABILITATION AND NEURAL REPAIR
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Guijin Li, Gustavo Balbinot, Julio C. Furlan, Sukhvinder Kalsi-Ryan, Jose Zariffa
Summary: This study used computational models to investigate changes in sEMG signal after SCI and identify sEMG features that are sensitive and specific to different aspects of the injury. The results showed that commonly used amplitude-based sEMG features cannot differentiate between injury scenarios, but a broader set of features provides greater specificity to the type of damage present.
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
(2023)