Development of intuitive rehabilitation method of intermuscular coordination in stroke-affected upper limb

Abstract

Intermuscular coordination refers how a human modulates many number of muscles to perform given motor tasks. In addition to muscle weakness and reduced range of joint motion, abnormal intermuscular coordination post stroke causes motor impairments in stroke-affected limbs. The intermuscular coordination altered by stroke has been evaluated for various motor tasks. Recent researches focus on rehabilitation of the abnormal intermuscular coordination limiting motor performance of stroke survivors. In this study, I investigated the intermuscular coordination in the stroke-affected upper limbs during the dynamic strengthening task, which has never been covered in literature. A rehabilitation strategy was suggested from the comparison of the stroke-affected intermuscular coordination patterns across various motor tasks. For intuitive rehabilitation, the training method based on the feedback of endpoint force was proposed and its validity was evaluated. A rehabilitation user interface was developed to realize the proposed training method. A preliminary clinical study was conducted with a few chronic stroke survivors and neurologically intact people to evaluate learning effects of the proposed training. This study showed that their intermuscular coordination was modified by the training, and, as a result, their endpoint force was also changed.