Dynamic rewiring of electrophysiological brain networks during learning.

Human learning is an active and complex process. However, the brain mechanisms underlying human skill learning and the effect of learning on the communication between brain regions, at different frequency bands, are still largely unknown. Here, we tracked changes in large-scale electrophysiological networks over a 6-week training period during which participants practiced a series of motor sequences during 30 home training sessions.

Young children can use their subjective straight-ahead to remap visuo-motor alterations.

Young children and adults process spatial information differently: the former use their bodies as primary reference, while adults seem capable of using abstract frames. The transition is estimated to occur between the 6th and the 12th year of age. The mechanisms underlying spatial encoding in children and adults are unclear, as well as those underlying the transition.

Immersive virtual reality interferes with default head-trunk coordination strategies in young children.

The acquisition of postural control is an elaborate process, which relies on the balanced integration of multisensory inputs. Current models suggest that young children rely on an 'en-block' control of their upper body before sequentially acquiring a segmental control around the age of 7, and that they resort to the former strategy under challenging conditions. While recent works suggest that a virtual sensory environment alters visuomotor integration in healthy adults, little is known about the effects on younger individuals.

A multimodal approach to capture post-stroke temporal dynamics of recovery.

Objective: Several training programs have been developed in the past to restore motor functions after stroke. Their efficacy strongly relies on the possibility to assess individual levels of impairment and recovery rate. However, commonly used clinical scales rely mainly on subjective functional assessments and are not able to provide a complete description of patients' neuro-biomechanical status.

Motor improvement estimation and task adaptation for personalized robot-aided therapy: a feasibility study.

Background: In the past years, robotic systems have become increasingly popular in upper limb rehabilitation. Nevertheless, clinical studies have so far not been able to confirm superior efficacy of robotic therapy over conventional methods. The personalization of robot-aided therapy according to the patients' individual motor deficits has been suggested as a pivotal step to improve the clinical outcome of such approaches.

Data-driven body-machine interface for the accurate control of drones.

The accurate teleoperation of robotic devices requires simple, yet intuitive and reliable control interfaces. However, current human-machine interfaces (HMIs) often fail to fulfill these characteristics, leading to systems requiring an intensive practice to reach a sufficient operation expertise. Here, we present a systematic methodology to identify the spontaneous gesture-based interaction strategies of naive individuals with a distant device, and to exploit this information to develop a data-driven body-machine interface (BoMI) to efficiently control this device.

Closed-loop control of trunk posture improves locomotion through the regulation of leg proprioceptive feedback after spinal cord injury.

After spinal cord injury (SCI), sensory feedback circuits critically contribute to leg motor execution. Compelled by the importance to engage these circuits during gait rehabilitation, assistive robotics and training protocols have primarily focused on guiding leg movements to reinforce sensory feedback. Despite the importance of trunk postural dynamics on gait and balance, trunk assistance has comparatively received little attention.

Axotomized Corticospinal Neurons Increase Supra-Lesional Innervation and Remain Crucial for Skilled Reaching after Bilateral Pyramidotomy.

Skilled upper limb function heavily depends on the corticospinal tract. After bilateral lesions to this tract, motor control is disrupted but can be partially substituted by other motor systems to allow functional recovery. However, the remaining roles of motor cortex and especially of axotomized corticospinal neurons (CSNs) are not well understood.

Accurate internal-external rotation measurement in total knee prostheses: A magnetic solution.

In this work we tackled the problem of accurate measurement of internal-external (IE) rotations in the prosthetic knee. We presented a magnetic measurement system to be implanted in the knee prostheses in order to measure IE without soft tissue artifacts. The measurement system consisted of a permanent magnet attached under the tibial plate of the prosthesis and a combination of magnetic sensors in the polyethylene insert.