Body-machine interfaces after spinal injury: rehabilitation and brain plasticity

 描述（由申请人提供）：尽管在脊髓（SCI）受伤的人的辅助技术领域取得了进展，但大多数控制计算机和轮椅的当前设备都设置在需要用户尽可能少的体力劳动的位置，并且很少注意保持和加强受伤后幸存的神经和肌肉资源。我们最近开发了一种新型的非侵入性的身体-机器接口（BMI）的连续控制的二维计算机光标使用四个惯性测量单元（伊穆斯）放置在用户的上身。对健康受试者的结果表明，利用来自伊穆斯的信号的冗余提高了整体性能。在这项研究中，我们建议验证我们的研究结果与SCI的人，并确定康复效果的实践上身控制的个性化界面在这一人群中。扩散张力磁共振成像（DTI），光学跟踪，力和功能的临床评价的组合，将提供一个框架，推断大脑结构的变化和运动障碍的任务措施提供的辅助设备。此外，我们将通过BMI的练习来证明SCI患者改善或防止运动和神经资源退化的能力。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite progress in the field of assistive technologies for people who suffered an injury to the spinal cord (SCI), most of the current devices to control computers and wheelchairs are set in place to require as little physical effort as possible from the user, and little attention has been paid to maintaining and strengthening the neural and muscular resources that survived the injury. We recently developed a novel non-invasive body- machine interface (BMI) for the continuous control of a two-dimensional computer cursor using four inertial measurement units (IMUs) placed on the user's upper body. Results on healthy subjects indicate that taking advantage of the redundancy of the signals from the IMUs improved overall performance. In this study we propose to validate our results on people with SCI and determine the rehabilitative effects of practicing upper- body control of personalized interface in this population. A combination of diffusion tension magnetic resonance imaging (DTI), optical tracking, and force and functional clinical evaluations, will provide a framework fo inferring changes in brain structures and motor impairment from task measures provided by an assistive device. Moreover, we will demonstrate the ability of SCI patients to improve-or prevent the degradation of-the motor and neural resources that survived the injury through practice with a BMI.