Article
Behavioral Sciences
Federica Scarpina, Valentina Bruno, Marco Rabuffetti, Lorenzo Priano, Sofia Tagini, Patrizia Gindri, Alessandro Mauro, Francesca Garbarini
Summary: This study revealed altered spatial bimanual coupling in individuals with Parkinson's Disease, with the less affected hand showing a higher interference effect. This effect was not present in healthy controls.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Maryam Ghahramani, Billy Mason, Patrick Pearsall, Wayne Spratford
Summary: Interlimb coordination variability analysis can provide insights into higher order coordination and motor control. This study investigates how the interlimb coordination of healthy individuals changes in different unilateral functional tasks and whether leg dominance affects coordination variability. The results show that linear coordination variability was smaller in step-ups compared to sit-to-stands and continuous hops, while nonlinear coordination variability was larger in hops compared to step-ups and sit-to-stands. Leg dominance did not affect coordination variability in participants with no known injuries.
FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Tal Krasovsky, Or Koren, Benedetta Heimler, Noam Galor, Sharon Hassin-Baer, Gabi Zeilig, Meir Plotnik
Summary: This study presents a new algorithm for predicting freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's Disease (PD) based on altered interlimb coordination. The algorithm uses two inertial movement sensors and a wavelet coherence algorithm. Results show that this method can effectively differentiate between FOG and voluntary stops, with high prediction accuracy.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Orthopedics
Courtney L. Pollock, Michael A. Hunt, S. Jayne Garland, Tanya D. Ivanova, James M. Wakeling
Summary: This study measured sagittal plane hip, knee, ankle, and trunk kinematics during 2-step stepping reactions initiated by paretic and nonparetic legs poststroke. Specific movement patterns showed associations with clinical measures depending on the initiating leg, suggesting the importance of these patterns in retraining stepping reactions poststroke.bedtls between-leg pattern differentiation may be important aspects to consider during retraining of stepping reactions poststroke.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Grace K. Kellaher, Sidney T. Baudendistel, Ryan T. Roemmich, Matthew J. Terza, Chris J. Hass
Summary: Individuals with Parkinson's disease demonstrated impaired interlimb coordination, particularly between the more affected arm and legs, during backward walking compared to healthy controls. This may contribute to difficulties in walking for those with Parkinson's disease, highlighting the importance of understanding and addressing coordination deficits in rehabilitation strategies.
PARKINSONISM & RELATED DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Akira Fukuhara, Yukihiro Koizumi, Tomoyuki Baba, Shura Suzuki, Takeshi Kano, Akio Ishiguro
Summary: The study focuses on the vertical motions of body parts in quadruped adaptive running and proposes a new decentralized interlimb coordination mechanism. Simulation results show that the robot can generate efficient running patterns based on body morphology, and smoothly switch between steady running and non-steady behaviors.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Kevin Lee, Wei Tang
Summary: This study presents a wearable motion tracking system designed for gait analysis and interlimb coordination studies, aiming to reduce fall risk and retrain gait. The system consists of ten custom wearable straps, a receiver, and a central computer, capable of calculating five gait parameters and identifying deviant gait patterns. It has potential in studying pathological gaits and limb coordination by tracking upper body parameters like arm swing.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Shijue Li, Haojie Zhang, Yan Leng, Di Lei, Qiuhua Yu, Kai Li, Minghui Ding, Wai Leung Ambrose Lo
Summary: This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the clinical benefits and neurophysiological changes of interlimb-coordinated intervention in patients with stroke. The findings of this study will provide insight into clinical decision-making and the future development of targeted neurorehabilitation protocols, ultimately improving gait and motor function in patients with stroke.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Sheng Ge, Jing He, Pan Lin, Ruimin Wang, Keiji Iramina, Yue Leng, Haixian Wang, Wenming Zheng, Chaoyong Xiao, Zonghong Li
Summary: Objective: This study aims to analyze the effective connectivity characteristics of brain networks during action observation from different visual perspectives, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and partial directional coherence (PDC) analysis. Results: The ultra-low frequency band (<= 0.04 Hz) showed significant activation during action observation from both first-person and third-person perspectives. The activation was stronger in the third-person perspective compared to the first-person perspective. In addition, the study attempted to classify fMRI data using brain network features, achieving high classification accuracies using weighted and binary PDC matrix methods. Significance: Weighted PDC analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of neural mechanisms during action observation and has potential applications in human-computer interaction.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ana Filipa Isidro, Alexandra M. Medeiros, Isaura Martins, Dalila Neves-Silva, Leonor Saude, Cesar S. Mendes
Summary: The coordination required for complex motor programs depends on communication between the spinal cord and higher brain circuits. Spinal cord injuries disrupt this communication, leading to loss of coordination and limited recovery potential. To measure the effects of drugs or therapies, new tools are needed to accurately quantify gait and limb coordination. This study presents an updated version of the MouseWalker system, which combines a walkway and tracking software to provide detailed parameters and graphical outputs for analysis.
JOVE-JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Varvara Valotassiou, Nikolaos Sifakis, Chara Tzavara, Evi Lykou, Niki Tsinia, Vasiliki Kamtsadeli, Dimitra Sali, George Angelidis, Dimitrios Psimadas, Eudoxia Theodorou, Ioannis Tsougos, Sokratis G. Papageorgiou, Panagiotis Georgoulias, John Papatriantafyllou
Summary: The study evaluated the perfusion correlates of anosognosia in various types of dementia using automated analysis, finding that cognitive anosognosia was associated with hypoperfusion in multiple areas of the right hemisphere, while no association was found with behavioral-mood anosognosia.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Elena Monai, Lorenzo Pini, Federica Palacino, Marta Bisio, Francesca Bernocchi, Alessandro Salvalaggio, Maurizio Corbetta
Summary: This study reveals the unique shared combination of content-specific and supramodal mechanisms in anosognosia.
ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Lisa Decraene, Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry, Lize Kleeren, Monica Crotti, Geert Verheyden, Els Ortibus, Hilde Feys, Lisa Mailleux, Katrijn Klingels
Summary: This study examined bimanual coordination in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (uCP) using multiple robotic tasks. The results showed that children with uCP had worse bimanual coordination compared to typically developing children, and the ball-on-bar task was most effective in assessing bimanual coupling and interlimb differences.
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Kento Nakagawa, Saeko Kawashima, Kazuki Fukuda, Nobuaki Mizuguchi, Tetsuro Muraoka, Kazuyuki Kanosue
Summary: Interlimb coordination involving cyclical movements of hand and foot in the sagittal plane is more difficult when the limbs move in opposite directions compared with the same direction. This study investigated the directional constraint on hand-foot coordination in motor imagery and found that the opposite directional movement took a significantly longer time than the same directional movement, suggesting that directional constraint occurs even in motor imagery.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Sophie Hascher, Anastasia Shuster, Roy Mukamel, Ori Ossmy
Summary: Interlimb coupling refers to the interaction between movements of one limb and movements of other limbs. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this effect is important for daily activities that require coordination between limbs. Traditional research methods have simplified the complexity of neural activity, but using a multivariate approach can better capture the relationship between limb movements.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Valentina Bruno, Nicolo Castellani, Francesca Garbarini, Mark Schram Christensen
Summary: This study investigated the role of dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) in generating predicted sensory consequences of movements. The findings suggest that disruption of PMd and the absence of somatosensation degrade motor performance and perception, indicating the crucial role of PMd in generating corollary discharge.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Denise Anastasi, Tiziana Lencioni, Ilaria Carpinella, Anna Castagna, Alessandro Crippa, Elisa Gervasoni, Chiara Corrini, Alberto Marzegan, Marco Rabuffetti, Maurizio Ferrarin, Davide Cattaneo
Summary: Dynamic balance disorders are common in People with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) and can lead to gait disorders and a higher risk of falling. Assessing dynamic balance is challenging, but instrumented indexes provide objective and quantitative data that can describe dynamic balance. This study aims to validate recent instrumented indexes based on the inverted pendulum model and characterize dynamic balance disorders in PwMS.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART H-JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Giuseppe Reale, Chiara Iacovelli, Marco Rabuffetti, Paolo Manganotti, Lucio Marinelli, Simona Sacco, Giovanni Furlanis, Milos Ajcevic, Aurelia Zauli, Marco Moci, Silvia Giovannini, Simona Crosetti, Matteo Grazzini, Stefano Filippo Castiglia, Matteo Podesta, Paolo Calabresi, Maurizio Ferrarin, Pietro Caliandro
Summary: Actigraphy is a useful tool in assessing stroke severity by measuring limb motor activity. This study demonstrates that Motor Activity (MA) and Asymmetry Index (AR) can describe different clinical conditions during the acute phase of stroke. Multiple linear regression and actigraphic cut-off values help predict stroke severity and differentiate minor from major strokes.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Francesca Setti, Giacomo Handjaras, Davide Bottari, Andrea Leo, Matteo Diano, Valentina Bruno, Carla Tinti, Luca Cecchetti, Francesca Garbarini, Pietro Pietrini, Emiliano Ricciardi
Summary: The superior temporal cortex in the human brain can synchronize the processing of auditory and visual information across different sensory conditions, even in individuals who are sensory-deprived and lack audiovisual experience. This synchronization is primarily based on low-level perceptual features and relies on a modality-independent topographical organization of slow temporal dynamics.
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Carlotta Fossataro, Mattia Galigani, Alice Rossi Sebastiano, Valentina Bruno, Irene Ronga, Francesca Garbarini
Summary: Peripersonal space (PPS) is a flexible bubble surrounding the body, and its boundaries can be changed depending on the proximity to others. Through experiments, it was found that the proximity to someone else's hand can shrink the PPS boundaries, indicating that PPS representation adapts to the presence of others. This adaptability allows individuals to differentiate between events pertaining to their own body and events pertaining to others when sharing space.
Review
Health Care Sciences & Services
Cosimo Tuena, Francesca Borghesi, Francesca Bruni, Silvia Cavedoni, Sara Maestri, Giuseppe Riva, Mauro Tettamanti, Rosa Liperoti, Lorena Rossi, Maurizio Ferrarin, Marco Stramba-Badiale
Summary: Cognitive-motor dual-task (CMDT) is essential in daily life and can be challenging for older adults with chronic age-related conditions. Technology-assisted CMDT rehabilitation has shown to be effective in improving motor-cognitive functions, particularly for dual-task performances, falls, gait, and cognition. However, further research is needed to explore its application in different chronic conditions and frailty status.
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Alessandro Mazza, Tommaso Ciorli, Ilaria Mirlisenna, Ilenia D'Onofrio, Silvia Mantellino, Martina Zaccaria, Lorenzo Pia, Olga Dal Monte
Summary: As social animals, humans are greatly influenced by social bonds and interpersonal interactions. This study aimed to investigate the role of supportive speaking and compare it with tactile support in pain modulation within romantic couples. The results showed that both tactile and vocal support were equally effective in reducing pain perception, highlighting the importance of active support in pain management.
Article
Neurosciences
Giuditta Gambino, Lorenzo Pia, Giuseppe Ferraro, Filippo Brighina, Danila Di Majo, Fabrizio Di Giovanni, Tommaso Ciorli, Pierangelo Sardo, Giuseppe Giglia
Summary: The pseudoneglect phenomenon refers to the tendency of healthy individuals to perceive the left side of bisected lines as slightly longer than the right side. Athletes practicing an open-skill sport exhibit less pseudoneglect compared to the general population. This study aims to investigate whether a one-week training period of exergame open-skill sport can decrease pseudoneglect, and the results suggest that daily training of a tennis exergame can reduce leftward space overestimation.
Article
Psychology
Gabriele Scozia, Mario Pinto, Michele Pellegrino, Silvana Lozito, Lorenzo Pia, Stefano Lasaponara, Fabrizio Doricchi
Summary: Left-to-right readers classify faster past events with motor responses on the left side of space and future events with responses on the right side. This suggests a left-to-right spatial organization in the mental representation of time. The significance and reliability of this representation are linked to the joint use of temporal and spatial codes in the task at hand.
ATTENTION PERCEPTION & PSYCHOPHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Giovanni Cantarella, Greta Vianello, Giuliana Vezzadini, Francesca Frassinetti, Elisa Ciaramelli, Michela Candini
Summary: Previous studies have shown that damage to the right hemisphere affects time processing, leading to the perception of shorter time intervals and the reproduction of longer time intervals. This study compared right brain damaged (RBD) patients, left brain damaged (LBD) patients, and healthy controls in their performance on time bisection and time reproduction tasks. The results revealed that RBD patients exhibited underestimation of time intervals in the bisection task and over-reproduction in the reproduction task, specifically for short time intervals. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping identified a right cortico-subcortical network involving the insula and inferior frontal gyrus as the neural basis for time underestimation.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Adriana Salatino, Claudio Zavattaro, Roberto Gammeri, Emanuele Cirillo, Maria Luisa Piatti, Maria Pyasik, Hilary Serra, Lorenzo Pia, Giuliano Geminiani, Raffaella Ricci
Summary: In recent decades, new virtual reality (VR)-based protocols have been proposed for the rehabilitation of Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN). However, the optimal type of VR protocol and level of immersion remain unclear. In this systematic review, 26 studies were identified and improvements were found in 84.6% of the reviewed studies. Further randomized control trials are needed to validate the clinical efficacy of VR protocols for USN rehabilitation.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Virginia Bandini, Ilaria Carpinella, Alberto Marzegan, Johanna Jonsdottir, Carlo Albino Frigo, Laura Avanzino, Elisa Pelosin, Maurizio Ferrarin, Tiziana Lencioni
Summary: Persons post-stroke often experience excessive muscle co-contraction, causing compromised arm functions in daily activities. This study aims to investigate whether the surface electromyography (sEMG)-based co-contraction index (CCI) can be a clinical tool for assessing and monitoring motor performance in stroke patients. Results showed that stroke patients exhibited higher muscle co-contraction compared to healthy subjects. After robot therapy, stroke patients showed improved motor control compared to usual care therapy. The sEMG-based CCI could be a valuable tool in clinical practice.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alessandro Mazza, Monia Cariola, Francesca Capiotto, Matteo Diano, Selene Schintu, Lorenzo Pia, Olga Dal Monte
Summary: Research shows that cuddling a loved one not only feels pleasant but also reduces autonomic responses and anxiety levels, especially when accompanied by mutual eye contact. The hedonic and autonomic aspects of affective touch are more pronounced in females. These findings suggest that affective touch plays an instrumental role in promoting and reinforcing emotional bonding between romantic partners.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Marco Rabuffetti, Ennio De Giovannini, Ilaria Carpinella, Tiziana Lencioni, Luca Fornia, Maurizio Ferrarin
Summary: This study found a noticeable association between the motor activity (MA) profiles of marital dyads, and the association was greater in dyads compared to a single person. The aim of the study was to verify the association of MA profiles in dyads where one component has Parkinson's disease (PD). The results showed that the association of MA profiles within a marital dyad was comparable to the association of any participant with themselves. However, the severity of PD symptoms influenced the association, with less severe symptoms having a stronger association between MA profiles. The study concluded that leveraging the MA of the healthy spouse could improve PD treatment and promote beneficial lifestyles for the affected component, and the actigraphy approach could provide valuable information for investigating treatment response.