MRI: Acquisition of a Mobile Robot System to Support Research on Robotic-Assisted Locomotion and its Effect on Development of Executive Function

这项合同将允许Sharon Stansfield博士和Ithaca学院获得支持正在进行的关于运动经验对典型发育婴儿的影响的研究的仪器。有人提出，婴儿的伸手、爬行和行走等动作可能对认知和感知的某些方面的发展很重要。这项研究的目的是a)进一步开发一种移动机器人平台和相关软件，让婴儿通过向婴儿想要移动的方向倾斜来“驱动”机器人，以及b)然后在研究中使用该机器人系统，以检验运动经验对典型发育中的爬行前婴儿认知发展的影响。如果增强的运动体验导致典型发育中的婴儿认知发展增强，这些结果将为未来使用机器人系统的研究提供动力，为患有运动障碍的儿童提供行动能力，如唐氏综合症、发育协调障碍、脊柱裂和脑瘫。患有这种障碍的儿童通常也会表现出认知发育迟缓。这项研究可能会导致技术的发展，为独立运动迟缓或有限的幼儿提供行动能力，从而为调节这些认知发育迟缓提供一条途径。目前研究的假设是，有使用机器人独立行走经验的婴儿将比没有这种经验的婴儿表现出更高的认知发展水平。五个月大的婴儿将被随机分配到在每次治疗期间驾驶机器人的试验组或不驾驶机器人的控制组。婴儿将完成12个20分钟的课程，然后完成一系列任务，包括深度知觉、手段-结束、A-非-B和切换任务，这些任务评估与运动有关的认知方面。这项研究的发现将提供对典型发育婴儿和运动障碍婴儿认知发展的基本机制的洞察，并可能导致一种辅助技术的创建，该技术将在日常生活中造福于运动障碍儿童。

This award will permit Dr. Sharon Stansfield and Ithaca College to acquire instrumentation that will support ongoing research into the effect of locomotor experience in typically developing infants. It has been suggested that infants' movements, such as reaching, crawling and walking, may be important for the development of certain aspects of cognition and perception. The purpose of this research is to a) further develop a mobile robot platform and associated software that lets a baby "drive" a robot by leaning in the direction that the baby wants to travel and b) to then use this robot system in research to examine the effect of locomotor experience on cognitive development in typically developing, pre-crawling infants. If enhanced locomotor experience leads to enhanced cognitive development in typically developing infants, these results would provide the impetus for future research using the robot system to provide mobility to children with conditions that involve motor impairment, such as Down syndrome, developmental coordination disorder, spina bifida, and cerebral palsy. Children with such impairments often also exhibit cognitive developmental delays. This research may lead to the development of technology that provides mobility to very young children with delayed or limited independent locomotion, thus providing an avenue for mediating these cognitive development delays. The hypothesis of the current research is that infants who have experience with independent locomotion using the robot will show higher levels of cognitive development than those without this experience. Five-month old infants will be randomly assigned to an experimental group that drives the robot during each session or to a control group that does not. Infants will complete twelve 20-minute sessions, followed by a battery of tasks including versions of a Depth Perception, Means-End, A-not-B, and Switch Task that assess aspects of cognition related to movement. Findings from this research will provide insight into the basic mechanisms involved in the cognitive development of both typically developing infants and infants with motor impairment, and may lead to the creation of an assistive technology that will benefit children with motor impairment in the course of their daily lives.