J Neuroeng Rehabil
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There is growing evidence that mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) can affect locomotor characteristics for prolonged periods of time even when physical signs and symptoms are absent. While most locomotor deficits post-concussion have involved straight walking, turning gait has received little attention despite its pervasiveness in everyday locomotion and athletic competition. ⋯ Turning gait should be included in future studies of concussion and may be a clinically useful tool. Future longitudinal studies should consider examining gait changes for up to 6-12 months post-injury.
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Previous studies have tried to relieve deafferentation pain (DP) by using virtual reality rehabilitation systems. However, the effectiveness of multimodal sensory feedback was not validated. The objective of this study is to relieve DP by neurorehabilitation using a virtual reality system with multimodal sensory feedback and to validate the efficacy of tactile feedback on immediate pain reduction. ⋯ Overall, our findings indicate that the tactile feedback improves the immediate pain intensity through rehabilitation using our virtual reality system.
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Review Meta Analysis
Powered robotic exoskeletons in post-stroke rehabilitation of gait: a scoping review.
Powered robotic exoskeletons are a potential intervention for gait rehabilitation in stroke to enable repetitive walking practice to maximize neural recovery. As this is a relatively new technology for stroke, a scoping review can help guide current research and propose recommendations for advancing the research development. The aim of this scoping review was to map the current literature surrounding the use of robotic exoskeletons for gait rehabilitation in adults post-stroke. ⋯ In conclusion, clinical trials demonstrate that powered robotic exoskeletons can be used safely as a gait training intervention for stroke. Preliminary findings suggest that exoskeletal gait training is equivalent to traditional therapy for chronic stroke patients, while sub-acute patients may experience added benefit from exoskeletal gait training. Efforts should be invested in designing rigorous, appropriately powered controlled trials before powered exoskeletons can be translated into a clinical tool for gait rehabilitation post-stroke.
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There has been a recent interest in the development of body-machine interfaces which allow individuals with motor impairments to control assistive devices using body movements. ⋯ These results clearly establish the viability and robustness of the proposed non-invasive body-machine interface for pediatric populations with severe motor limitations.
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Clinical Trial
Blending of brain-machine interface and vision-guided autonomous robotics improves neuroprosthetic arm performance during grasping.
Recent studies have shown that brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) offer great potential for restoring upper limb function. However, grasping objects is a complicated task and the signals extracted from the brain may not always be capable of driving these movements reliably. Vision-guided robotic assistance is one possible way to improve BMI performance. We describe a method of shared control where the user controls a prosthetic arm using a BMI and receives assistance with positioning the hand when it approaches an object. ⋯ Integration of BMI control with vision-guided robotic assistance led to improved performance on object transfer tasks. Providing assistance while maintaining generalizability will make BMI systems more attractive to potential users.