Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Neuromodulation
- All Subjects: Robot hands
Description
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has shown benefits beyond its original therapeutic application, though there is a lack of research into these benefits in healthy and athletic populations. To address this gap in the VNS literature, the present study addresses the feasibility and possible efficacy of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) in improving performance and various biometrics during two athletic tasks: golf tee shots and baseball pitching. Performance, cortical dynamics, anxiety measures, muscle excitation, and heart rate characteristics were assessed before and after stimulation using electroencephalography (EEG), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and electrocardiography (ECG) during the baseball and golf tasks as well as electromyography (EMG) for muscle excitation in the golf participants. Golfers exhibited increased perceived quality of each repetition (independent from outcome) and an improvement in state and trait anxiety after stimulation. Golfers in the active stimulation group also showed a greater reduction in right upper trapezius muscle excitation when compared to the sham stimulation group. Baseball pitchers exhibited an increase in perceived quality of each repetition (independent from outcome) after active stimulation but not an improvement of state and trait anxiety. No significant effects of stimulation Priming, stimulation Type, or the Priming×Type interaction were seen in heart rate, EEG, or performance in the golf or baseball tasks. The present study supports the feasibility of tVNS in sports and athletic tasks and suggests the need for future research to investigate further into the effects of tVNS on the performance, psychologic, and physiologic attributes of athletes during competition.
ContributorsLindley, Kyle (Author) / Tyler, William J (Thesis advisor) / Wyckoff, Sarah (Committee member) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Sleep is an essential human function. Modern day society has made it so that sleep is prioritized less and less. Professionals in critical positions such as doctors, nurses, and emergency medical technicians can often have hectic schedules that are unforgiving toward sleep due to the increase in shift work that dominates these fields. Sleep deficits can have detrimental effects on one’s psyche and mood. Depression and anxiety both have high comorbidity rates with insomnia because of sleeping deficits. Transdermal Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) offers a potential solution to improving sleep quality and mood by modulating the ascending reticular activating system (RAS). This system starts in the anterior portion of the head with trigeminal nerve branches and is stimulated using a 500-550 Hz waveform.
In this experiment Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scores are recorded daily to monitor mood differences between pre and post treatment (TENS vs Sham). PANAS scores were found to be insignificant between groups. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Fitbit were chosen to study perceived sleep, and objective sleep. Both PSQI, and Fitbit found insignificant differences between TENS and Sham. Finally, the Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Inventories were administered weekly to determine if there are immediate changes to depressive and anxiety symptom, after a week of treatment (TENS vs Sham). A significant difference was found between the pre and post of the TENS treatment group. The TENS group was not found to be significantly different from Sham, potentially the result of a placebo effect. These results were found with n=10 participants in the TENS treatment group and n=6 in the sham group.
In this experiment Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scores are recorded daily to monitor mood differences between pre and post treatment (TENS vs Sham). PANAS scores were found to be insignificant between groups. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Fitbit were chosen to study perceived sleep, and objective sleep. Both PSQI, and Fitbit found insignificant differences between TENS and Sham. Finally, the Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Inventories were administered weekly to determine if there are immediate changes to depressive and anxiety symptom, after a week of treatment (TENS vs Sham). A significant difference was found between the pre and post of the TENS treatment group. The TENS group was not found to be significantly different from Sham, potentially the result of a placebo effect. These results were found with n=10 participants in the TENS treatment group and n=6 in the sham group.
ContributorsUdave, Ceasar (Author) / Tyler, William J (Thesis advisor) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Wyckoff, Sarah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Wearable assistive devices have been greatly improved thanks to advancements made in soft robotics, even creation soft extra arms for paralyzed patients. Grasping remains an active area of research of soft extra limbs. Soft robotics allow the creation of grippers that due to their inherit compliance making them lightweight, safer for human interactions, more robust in unknown environments and simpler to control than their rigid counterparts. A current problem in soft robotics is the lack of seamless integration of soft grippers into wearable devices, which is in part due to the use of elastomeric materials used for the creation of most of these grippers. This work introduces fabric-reinforced textile actuators (FRTA). The selection of materials, design logic of the fabric reinforcement layer and fabrication method are discussed. The relationship between the fabric reinforcement characteristics and the actuator deformation is studied and experimentally verified. The FRTA are made of a combination of a hyper-elastic fabric material with a stiffer fabric reinforcement on top. In this thesis, the design, fabrication, and evaluation of FRTAs are explored. It is shown that by varying the geometry of the reinforcement layer, a variety of motion can be achieve such as axial extension, radial expansion, bending, and twisting along its central axis. Multi-segmented actuators can be created by tailoring different sections of fabric-reinforcements together in order to generate a combination of motions to perform specific tasks. The applicability of this actuators for soft grippers is demonstrated by designing and providing preliminary evaluation of an anthropomorphic soft robotic hand capable of grasping daily living objects of various size and shapes.
ContributorsLopez Arellano, Francisco Javier (Author) / Santello, Marco (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Wenlong (Thesis advisor) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Previously accomplished research examined sensory integration between upper limb proprioception and tactile sensation. The active proprioceptive-tactile relationship points towards an opportunity to examine neuromodulation effects on sensory integration with respect to proprioceptive error magnitude and direction. Efforts to improve focus and attention during upper limb proprioceptive tasks results in a decrease of proprioceptive error magnitudes and greater endpoint accuracy. Increased focus and attention can also be correlated to neurophysiological activity in the Locus Coeruleus (LC) during a variety of mental tasks. Through non-invasive trigeminal nerve stimulation, it may be possible to affect the activity of the LC and induce improvements in arousal and attention that would assist in proprioceptive estimation. The trigeminal nerve projects to the LC through the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal complex, providing a pathway similar to the effects seen from vagus nerve stimulation. In this experiment, the effect of trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) on proprioceptive ability is evaluated by the proprioceptive estimation error magnitude and direction, while LC activation via autonomic pathways is indirectly measured using pupil diameter, pupil recovery time, and pupil velocity. TNS decreases proprioceptive error magnitude in 59% of subjects, while having no measurable impact on proprioceptive strategy. Autonomic nervous system changes were observed in 88% of subjects, with mostly parasympathetic activation and a mixed sympathetic effect.
ContributorsOrthlieb, Gerrit Chi Luk (Author) / Helms-Tillery, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Tanner, Justin (Committee member) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019