Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: Strokes
- Creators: Holzapfel, Simon
- Creators: Buneo, Christopher
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Robotic rehabilitation for upper limb post-stroke recovery is a developing technology. However, there are major issues in the implementation of this type of rehabilitation, issues which decrease efficacy. Two of the major solutions currently being explored to the upper limb post-stroke rehabilitation problem are the use of socially assistive rehabilitative robots, robots which directly interact with patients, and the use of exoskeleton-based systems of rehabilitation. While there is great promise in both of these techniques, they currently lack sufficient efficacy to objectively justify their costs. The overall efficacy to both of these techniques is about the same as conventional therapy, yet each has higher overhead costs that conventional therapy does. However there are associated long-term cost savings in each case, meaning that the actual current viability of either of these techniques is somewhat nebulous. In both cases, the problems which decrease technique viability are largely related to joint action, the interaction between robot and human in completing specific tasks, and issues in robot adaptability that make joint action difficult. As such, the largest part of current research into rehabilitative robotics aims to make robots behave in more "human-like" manners or to bypass the joint action problem entirely.
ContributorsRamakrishna, Vijay Kambhampati (Author) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Thesis director) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The purpose of this study, originally, was to contribute to the completion of a meta-analysis conducted by Mara Wierstra from the University of Virginia. Wierstra had requested individual participant data from two separate studies conducted in our lab: "Acute bouts of assisted cycling improves cognitive and upper extremity movement functions in adolescents with Down syndrome" and "Assisted Cycling Therapy (ACT) improves inhibition in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder." From the data requested, the participants were required to complete three separate tests (i.e., Tower of London, Trail Making Task and the Stroop Test). After compiling the data and sending it to her, we decided to conduct a small meta-analysis of our own, drawing connecting conclusions from the data from the two studies. We concluded that observationally our data suggest an advantage for ACT over voluntary cycling and no cycling across two separate populations (i.e., Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down syndrome), and across different measures of executive function (i.e., Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, and Tower of London). The data suggest that the ACT interventions may promote the upregulation of neurotropic factors leading to neurogenesis in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
ContributorsParker, Cade Joseph (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Upper extremity function is vital for activities of daily living especially in stroke survivors. An innovative way to improve upper extremity function has been shown with Assisted Cycle Therapy (ACT). This is among the first study to examine ACT in stroke survivors. 13 stroke survivors performed ACT, VC, and NC and pre and post measures of upper extremity function were conducted with the box and blocks test (BBT). The results showed that non-paretic upper extremity improved its function after ACT and VC, but not after NC. For the paretic arm, while the results did not reach conventional levels of significance, improvements in upper extremity function following ACT more so than VC or NC. These results were interpreted to suggest that ACT resulted in increased production of BDNF in the motor cortex, which resulted in improvements in global motor function.
ContributorsHeyer, Brittany Nicole (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Executive function is vital for activities of daily living especially in stroke survivors because it is critical to everyday tasks (e.g., driving, cooking, etc.). An innovative way to improve executive function may be Assisted Cycling Therapy (ACT). This is among the first studies to use a Stroop task to measure inhibition, selective attention, and information processing speed following ACT in stroke survivors. Twenty-three participants post-stroke performed ACT, voluntary cycling (VC) and no cycling (NC). The results showed that there were improvements in the Stroop task following an acute session of ACT but not following VC or NC. These results suggest that ACT resulted in increased afferent information which may have resulted in increased arousal and excitability in regions of the prefrontal cortex. These factors have been shown to improve executive function.
ContributorsCooper, Aspen (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Electromyography (EMG) is an extremely useful tool in extracting control signals from the human body. Needle electromyography is the current standard for obtaining superior quality muscle signals and obtaining signals corresponding to individual muscles. However, needle EMG faces many problems when converting from the laboratory to marketable devices, specifically in home devices. Many patients have issues with needles and the extra care required of needle EMG is prohibitive. Therefore, a surface EMG device that can obtain clear signals from individual muscles would be valuable to many markets in the development of next generation in home devices. Here, signals from surface EMG were analyzed using a low noise EMG evaluation system (RHD 2000; Intan Technologies). The signal to noise ratio (SNR) was calculated using MatLab. The average SNR is 4.447 for the Extensor Carpi Ulnaris, and 7.369 for the Extensor Digitorum Communis. Spectral analysis was performed using the Welch approach in MatLab. The power spectrum indicated that low frequency signals dominate the EMG of small hand muscles. Also, harmonic bands of 60Hz noise were present as part of the signal which should be accounted for with filters in future iterations of the testing method. Provided is evidence that strong, independent signals were acquired and could be used in further application of surface EMG corresponding to lifting of the fingers.
ContributorsSnyder, Joshua Scott (Author) / Muthuswamy, Jit (Thesis director) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This study examined upper extremity function, including manual dexterity, in chronic stroke survivors following a 10-week high intensity interval treadmill walking intervention. Six stroke survivors completed two 35-minute high intensity interval treadmill walking sessions based on ventilatory threshold per week. In addition, each participant completed one 30-minute low-intensity walking session at home. Participants completed upper extremity and manual dexterity testing at baseline, acutely, and after the 10-week intervention. Contrary to the prediction made, significant improvements in both paretic and non-paretic upper-extremity function including manual dexterity were not found. While time to complete the Nine Hole Peg Test (9HPB) somewhat decreased and the number of blocks transferred in the Box and Blocks Test (BBT) slightly increased, results were not found to be statistically significant. The results do suggest, nonetheless, that high intensity interval treadmill training may lead to improvements in upper extremity function and potentially daily living in chronic stroke survivors.
ContributorsHatty, Laura Elizabeth (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Bosch, Pamela (Committee member) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05