Journal article

Robotic exoskeletons: a perspective for the rehabilitation of arm coordination in stroke patients

Nathanael Jarrassé, Tommaso Proietti, Vincent Crocher, Johanna Robertson, Anis Sahbani, Guillaume Morel, Agnes Roby-Brami

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | Frontiers | Published : 2014

Abstract

Upper-limb impairment after stroke is caused by weakness, loss of individual joint control, spasticity, and abnormal synergies. Upper-limb movement frequently involves abnormal, stereotyped, and fixed synergies, likely related to the increased use of sub-cortical networks following the stroke. The flexible coordination of the shoulder and elbow joints is also disrupted. New methods for motor learning, based on the stimulation of activity-dependent neural plasticity have been developed. These include robots that can adaptively assist active movements and generate many movement repetitions. However, most of these robots only control the movement of the hand in space. The aim of the present tex..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by French National Agency for research, ANR


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors thank Catherine Bidard, Philippe Garrec, and Yann Perrot (CEA-LIST) for their contribution with the ABLE Exoskeleton and the participants of the European Network on Robotics for Neuro Rehabilitation (COST action TD1006) for fruitful discussions. We also thank Prof. Djamel Bensmail and Prof. Bernard Bussel (Hopital Raymond Poincare Garches) for their support with clinical experiments. Funding: This work was supported by the French National Agency for research, ANR, program PSIROB-ROBO-0003. Tommaso Proietti received a doctoral grant from Region Ile de France.