Enhancing transfer of motor skill learning from virtual to physical environments in children with cerebral palsy

项目摘要 本申请的指导研究科学家发展奖（K01）旨在促进 知识的重要性，以减轻表现的功能障碍，在儿童与CP和支持， Danielle Levac博士的职业生涯，BSc.PT，MSc，PhD，物理系助理教授 治疗，运动和康复科学在东北大学。莱瓦奇医生指导康复中心 游戏和虚拟现实实验室，拟议的研究将发生。勒瓦克博士的研究计划是 根据她的经验评估如何典型地发展儿童和脑瘫儿童（CP）， 儿童残疾的最常见原因，通过与运动控制的互动获得新技能， 在二维（2D）平面屏幕虚拟环境中显示的虚拟现实游戏。这一共同 康复的方法受到技能改进向真实的世界情况的不良转移的影响。勒瓦克医生 旨在通过探索是否虚拟的， 促进CP儿童运动模式适应性变化的环境将增强迁移 变成了现实生活中的技能她的初步研究为这一假设提供了证据。为了探索这些问题，她 我将首先确定在技能获得过程中适应性变化的数量是否对迁移很重要 CP儿童的成功（具体目标1）。接下来，她将比较性能可变性和转移 在2D虚拟环境和新型3D头戴式显示器（HMD）环境（Specific Aim 2）之间， 了解对运动变异性的不同影响及其与技能获得和转移的关系， 真实的生活任务。儿童的表现和结果将使用动作捕捉方法进行测量。勒瓦克医生 具有临床研究背景，并将寻求指导培训和技能发展，以提高她 了解CP儿童的特定感觉运动障碍及其治疗，获得以下技能： 动作捕捉方法和统计变异建模，并支持她继续流畅地使用虚拟 现实的硬件和软件给出了预测的快速发展，在这一领域。她将完成这些 目标，通过正式的课程，指导技能的发展，和实证研究相结合， 上面描述Levac博士已经招募了一个跨学科的导师和咨询委员会来指导她 这些研究和培训活动。该委员会在感觉运动控制方面具有高级专业知识， 脑瘫儿童的学习，动作捕捉方法学和数据处理，统计变异建模 和分析，以及虚拟环境任务设计和接口技术。他们非常有资格， 完全致力于协助Levac博士进一步培训，研究和职业道路，并实现她的职业生涯 目标.通过这次培训，Levac博士有望成为不断变化的生物医学领域的领先研究人员。 儿科康复的虚拟环境，产生可直接转化为临床的研究 实践和提高功能的结果与CP和其他神经运动障碍的儿童。

Project Summary This application for a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) is designed to advance knowledge important for lessening the expression of functional disability in children with CP and support the career of Dr. Danielle Levac, BSc.PT, MSc, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Science at Northeastern University. Dr. Levac directs the Rehabilitation Games and Virtual Reality Lab where the proposed research will take place. Dr. Levac’s proposed research is based on her experience evaluating how typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy (CP), the most common cause of pediatric disability, acquire new skills through interaction with motion-controlled virtual reality games displayed in two-dimensional (2D), flat-screen virtual environments. This common approach to rehabilitation suffers from poor transfer of skill improvement to real world situations. Dr. Levac aims to investigate the mechanisms underlying this major treatment drawback by exploring whether virtual environments that promote adaptive variability in movement patterns in children with CP will enhance transfer to a real-life skill. Her preliminary studies provide evidence for this hypothesis. To explore these questions, she will first identify whether the amount of adaptive variability during skill acquisition is important for transfer success in children with CP (Specific Aim 1). Next, she will compare performance variability and transfer between 2D virtual environments and a novel 3D head-mounted display (HMD) environment (Specific Aim 2) to understand differential effects on movement variability and its relationship to skill acquisition and transfer to a real life task. Children’s performance and outcomes will be measured using motion capture methods. Dr. Levac has a clinical research background and will seek mentored training and skill development to enhance her knowledge about specific sensorimotor impairments in children with CP and their treatment, gain skills in motion capture methodology and statistical variability modeling, and support her continued fluency with virtual reality hardware and software given the predicted rapid developments in this field. She will accomplish these goals through a combination of formal coursework, mentored skill development, and the empirical research described above. Dr. Levac has recruited an interdisciplinary mentor and advisory committee to guide her in these research and training activities. This committee has senior-level expertise in sensorimotor control and learning in children with CP, motion capture methodology and data processing, statistical variability modeling and analysis , and virtual environment task design and interface technology. They are eminently qualified and fully committed to assisting Dr. Levac to further her training, research and career path and achieve her career objectives. With this training, Dr. Levac is poised to become a leading researcher in the ever-changing field of virtual environments for pediatric rehabilitation, producing research that is directly translatable to clinical practice and that enhances functional outcomes for children with CP and other neuromotor impairments.