Therapist-mediated post-stroke rehabilitation using haptic/graphic error augmentation.

Recent research has suggested that enhanced retraining for stroke patients using haptics (robotic forces) and graphics (visual display) to generate a practice environment that can artificially enhance error rather than reducing it, can stimulate new learning and foster accelerated recovery. We present an evaluation of early results of this novel post-stroke robotic-aided therapy trial that incorporates these ideas in a large VR system and simultaneously employs the patient, the therapist, and the technology to accomplish effective therapy.

A randomized controlled trial of gravity-supported, computer-enhanced arm exercise for individuals with severe hemiparesis.

Background/objective: The authors previously developed a passive instrumented arm orthosis (Therapy Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton [T-WREX]) that enables individuals with hemiparesis to exercise the arm by playing computer games in a gravity-supported environment. The purpose of this study was to compare semiautonomous training with T-WREX and conventional semiautonomous exercises that used a tabletop for gravity support.

Methods: Twenty-eight chronic stroke survivors with moderate/severe hemiparesis were randomly assigned to experimental (T-WREX) or control (tabletop exercise) treatment.

Frequency domain analyses of neonatal flash VEP.

A battery of frequency-dependent measures was made for high-density electroencephalographic recording measured in response to a flash stimulus in 12 normal term infants within 2 d of birth. Significant changes recorded in posterior electrodes in the same time window as the visual evoked potential (VEP) included increased local synchrony at approximately 40 Hz, increased power at approximately 16 Hz, the emergence of nonlinear coupling of lower (approximately 2 Hz) and higher frequency oscillations, and phase locking over a wide range of frequencies. This research provides evidence of neural synchrony and nonlinear coupling in response to a simple visual stimulus.

Electrocortical functional connectivity in infancy: response to body tilt.

To test the hypothesis that infant cortical regions activated by a head-up tilt also exhibit increased functional electrocortical connectivity, prone sleeping newborn and 2- to 4-month-old infants were tilted head-up to 30 degrees. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected with 128 electrodes and coherence calculated to quantify electrocortical synchrony. Local coherence, defined as the average of coherence measurements between the EEG at each electrode site and neighboring sites (approximately 1 cm electrode spacing), was found in activated cortical regions that had previously shown increased high-frequency power with tilt.

Topographic localization of electrocortical activation in newborn and two- to four-month-old infants in response to head-up tilting.

Aims: (1) To confirm that head-up tilting causes sustained increases in the heart rate (HR) of newborn infants but not during the period of maximum vulnerability to SIDS at 2-4 mo of age, and (2) to determine whether electrocortical activation (changes in high-frequency EEG power) also shows topographic and age-dependent effects of tilting.

Methods: HR and electrocortical activity were recorded in 15 newborn and 12 2- to 4-mo-old infants during head-up tilting. Infants were tilted, three times, to a 30 degrees head-up position.