Article

Stroke is the leading cause of permanent disability in developed countries; its
effects may include sensory, motor, and cognitive impairment as well as a reduced
ability to perform self-care and participate in social and community activities.
A number of studies have shown that the use of robotic systems in upper limb
motor rehabilitation programs provides safe and intensive treatment to patients
with motor impairments because of a neurological injury. Furthermore, robot-aided
therapy was shown to be well accepted and tolerated by all patients; however, it
is not known whether a specific robot-aided rehabilitation can induce beneficial
cortical plasticity in stroke patients. Here, we present a procedure to study
neural underpinning of robot-aided upper limb rehabilitation in stroke patients.
Neurophysiological recordings use the following: (a) 10-20 system
electroencephalographic (EEG) electrode montage; (b) bipolar vertical and
horizontal electrooculographies; and (c) bipolar electromyography from the
operating upper limb. Behavior monitoring includes the following: (a) clinical
data and (b) kinematic and dynamic of the operant upper limb movements.
Experimental conditions include the following: (a) resting state eyes closed and
eyes open, and (b) robotic rehabilitation task (maximum 80 s each block to reach
4-min EEG data; interblock pause of 1 min). The data collection is performed
before and after a program of 30 daily rehabilitation sessions. EEG markers
include the following: (a) EEG power density in the eyes-closed condition; (b)
reactivity of EEG power density to eyes opening; and (c) reactivity of EEG power
density to robotic rehabilitation task. The above procedure was tested on a
subacute patient (29 poststroke days) and on a chronic patient (21 poststroke
months). After the rehabilitation program, we observed (a) improved clinical
condition; (b) improved performance during the robotic task; (c) reduced delta
rhythms (1-4 Hz) and increased alpha rhythms (8-12 Hz) during the resting state
eyes-closed condition; (d) increased alpha desynchronization to eyes opening; and
(e) decreased alpha desynchronization during the robotic rehabilitation task. We
conclude that the present procedure is suitable for evaluation of the neural
underpinning of robot-aided upper limb rehabilitation.

Langue : ANGLAIS