Bimanual coordinated motor skill learning in patients with a chronic cerebellar stroke.

Cerebellar strokes induce coordination disorders that can affect activities of daily living. Evidence-based neurorehabilitation programs are founded on motor learning principles. The cerebellum is a key neural structure in motor learning.

Bimanual motor skill learning after stroke: Combining robotics and anodal tDCS over the undamaged hemisphere: An exploratory study.

Background: Since a stroke can impair bimanual activities, enhancing bimanual cooperation through motor skill learning may improve neurorehabilitation. Therefore, robotics and neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are promising approaches. To date, tDCS has failed to enhance bimanual motor control after stroke possibly because it was not integrating the hypothesis that the undamaged hemisphere becomes the major poststroke hub for bimanual control.

Evidence of Motor Skill Learning in Acute Stroke Patients Without Lesions to the Thalamus and Internal Capsule.

Background: It is currently unknown whether motor skill learning (MSkL) with the paretic upper limb is possible during the acute phase after stroke and whether lesion localization impacts MSkL. Here, we investigated MSkL in acute (1-7 days post) stroke patients compared with healthy individuals (HIs) and in relation to voxel-based lesion symptom mapping.

Methods: Twenty patients with acute stroke and 35 HIs were trained over 3 consecutive days on a neurorehabilitation robot measuring speed, accuracy, and movement smoothness variables.

Bimanual motor skill learning with robotics in chronic stroke: comparison between minimally impaired and moderately impaired patients, and healthy individuals.

Background: Most activities of daily life (ADL) require cooperative bimanual movements. A unilateral stroke may severely impair bimanual ADL. How patients with stroke (re)learn to coordinate their upper limbs (ULs) is largely unknown.

Bimanual motor skill learning and robotic assistance for chronic hemiparetic stroke: a randomized controlled trial.

Using robotic devices might improve recovery post-stroke, but the optimal way to apply robotic assistance has yet to be determined. The current study aimed to investigate whether training under the robotic active-assisted mode improves bimanual motor skill learning (biMSkL) more than training under the active mode in stroke patients. Twenty-six healthy individuals (HI) and 23 chronic hemiparetic stroke patients with a detectable lesion on MRI or CT scan, who demonstrated motor deficits in the upper limb, were randomly allocated to two parallel groups.

Effect of Age and Body Size on the Wrist's Viscoelasticity in Healthy Participants From 3 to 90 Years Old and Reliability Assessment.

Excessive or insufficient levels of passive musculoarticular stiffness (PMAS) can lead to joint impairment or instability. Quantifying the PMAS may provide a better understanding of neurological or musculoskeletal disorders. The aims of the present study were multiple: first, to assess the reliability of quantifying PMAS and to collect normative data on the wrist in healthy participants, and second, to assess the effect of age and body size on PMAS.

Learning a Bimanual Cooperative Skill in Chronic Stroke Under Noninvasive Brain Stimulation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been suggested to improve poststroke recovery. However, its effects on bimanual motor learning after stroke have not previously been explored.

Innovative endoscopic sino-nasal and anterior skull base robotics.

Purpose: Design a compact, ergonomic, and safe endoscope positioner dedicated to the sino-nasal tract, and the anterior and middle-stage skull base.

Methods: A motion and force analysis of the surgeon's movement was performed on cadaver heads to gather objective data for specification purposes. An experimental comparative study was then performed with three different kinematics, again on cadaver heads, in order to define the best architecture satisfying the motion and force requirements.

Building large mosaics of confocal edomicroscopic images using visual servoing.

Probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy provides real-time microscopic images of tissues contacted by a small probe that can be inserted in vivo through a minimally invasive access. Mosaicking consists in sweeping the probe in contact with a tissue to be imaged while collecting the video stream, and process the images to assemble them in a large mosaic. While most of the literature in this field has focused on image processing, little attention has been paid so far to the way the probe motion can be controlled.

Design and preliminary in vivo validation of a robotic laparoscope holder for minimally invasive surgery.

Background: Manual manipulation of the camera is a major source of difficulties encountered by surgeons while performing minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.

Methods: A survey of laparoscopic procedures and a review of existing active and passive holders were conducted. Based on these analyses, essential requirements were highlighted for such devices.

Development and first in vivo trial of EvoLap, an active laparoscope positioner.

To determine essential specifications for an active endoscope holder, a survey of laparoscopic procedures was conducted. A review of the literature highlighted the advantages and limitations of existing scope-holding systems. From this analysis, basic requirements were listed for such devices.