Medical College of Wisconsin
CTSICores SearchResearch InformaticsREDCap

Effect of Short-Term Exposure to Supplemental Vibrotactile Kinesthetic Feedback on Goal-Directed Movements after Stroke: A Proof of Concept Case Series. Sensors (Basel) 2021 Feb 22;21(4)

Date

03/07/2021

Pubmed ID

33671643

Pubmed Central ID

PMC7926783

DOI

10.3390/s21041519

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85101069817 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   4 Citations

Abstract

Many survivors of stroke have persistent somatosensory deficits on the contralesional side of their body. Non-invasive supplemental feedback of limb movement could enhance the accuracy and efficiency of actions involving the upper extremity, potentially improving quality of life after stroke. In this proof-of-concept study, we evaluated the feasibility and the immediate effects of providing supplemental kinesthetic feedback to stroke survivors, performing goal-directed actions with the contralesional arm. Three survivors of stroke in the chronic stage of recovery participated in experimental sessions wherein they performed reaching and stabilization tasks with the contralesional arm under different combinations of visual and vibrotactile feedback, which was induced on the ipsilesional arm. Movement kinematics were encoded by a vibrotactile feedback interface in two ways: state feedback-an optimal combination of hand position and velocity; and error feedback-the difference between the actual hand position and its instantaneous target. In each session we evaluated the feedback encoding scheme's immediate objective utility for improving motor performance as well as its perceived usefulness. All three participants improved their stabilization performance using at least one of the feedback encoding schemes within just one experimental session. Two of the participants also improved reaching performance with one or the other of the encoding schemes. Although the observed beneficial effects were modest in each participant, these preliminary findings show that supplemental vibrotactile kinesthetic feedback can be readily interpreted and exploited to improve reaching and object stabilizing actions performed with the contralesional arm after stroke. These short-term training results motivate a longer multisession training study using personalized vibrotactile feedback as a means to improve the accuracy and efficacy of contralesional arm actions after stroke.

Author List

Ballardini G, Krueger A, Giannoni P, Marinelli L, Casadio M, Scheidt RA

Author

Robert Scheidt BS,MS,PhD Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering department at Marquette University




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Feedback
Female
Goals
Humans
Kinesthesis
Male
Psychomotor Performance
Quality of Life
Stroke
Stroke Rehabilitation