DescriptionOne of the primary goals in hemiparetic stroke and cerebral palsy rehabilitation is to improve movement efficiency by correcting typical abnormalities of hemiplegic movement. In order to help patients achieve higher functionality, it is important to not only to develop new equipment, but also to understand how motor learning takes place in those with neuromuscular dysfunction. The hypotheses of this dissertation were (1) A simple interface between muscles with and engaging game interface can be used to promote repetitive task practice. (2) Inter-limb transfer of learning occurs in the lower limbs in accord with their hemispheric specialization.
Specific contributions include the design a force myograpic cuff (FMG), a goniometric ankle platform, a LabVIEW interface that recorded signals from both devices ran games. In addition, four small-scale clinical tests conducted using the two devices, and a clinical test of ankle ILT on 22 unimpaired subjects.
The clinical tests performed with hemiparetic, and unimpaired volunteers revealed that the ankle platform performed better when used with impaired patients than the FMG cuff. However, combining force myography with a mouse emulator to allow patients to play computer games using meaningful upper limb movements appears to be a promising upper limb intervention.
The second part of this project explores how Inter-limb learning transfer (ILT) occurs in the lower limbs and the implications these results may have for lower limb rehabilitation. Twenty-two healthy right-dominant subjects were divided into two groups: half performed the tasks first using the right foot (group RL), and the other half performed it first with the left foot (group LR). Results demonstrated that group LR but not group RL experienced significant ILT of directional as well as positional information in both tasks in a manner reflective of the distinctly different functional roles played by the upper and lower limbs. The present results thus provide clear evidence for the potential benefit to the affected limb afforded by contralateral limb training, and studies are underway to test its efficacy.