ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Motor Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1571624
Effective unilateral/bilateral robot-assisted training for upper limb motor function rehabilitation: a cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo, China
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Objective: The therapeutic effect of robot-assisted training is still indecisive due to the lack of patient-tailored protocols and dose-matched training strategies when compared to traditional treatment. The objective of this study was to investigate the optimal robot-assisted training strategies to meet personalized upper limb rehabilitation needs in hemiparetic stroke patients.Approach: A bilateral upper limb rehabilitation robot was employed to execute unilateral and bilateral training. Eighteen able-bodied subjects were recruited to safely validate robot-assisted training strategies' efficacy before transitioning to stroke patients. We compare unilateral passive (UPT), bilateral passive (BPT) and active training (UAT) with various feedback types (visual, force, and visual-force, none). These trainings were performed on 3 kinds of virtually-guided (straight-line, circular, S-shaped) tasks. Tracking error (TE), interactive force (IF) and target muscle activation level were quantified to characterize the motion capability and active participation of subjects.Main results: Results revealed that BPT-visual (0.63 ± 0.26) significantly increased muscle activation level when compared to those of BPT-none (0.45 ± 0.27) and UPT-Visual (0.24 ± 0.05) (p < 0.01). UAT with single-modality feedback (visual/force) enabled higher TE (22.5 ± 3.40 mm) and active participation (0.78 ± 0.12) when compared with UAT with multi-modality (visual-force) feedback (TE: 6.6 ± 0.8 mm; activation level: 0.53 ± 0.13) (p<0.01). The relatively complex circular and Sshaped tasks significantly enhanced the benefits of various training strategies.Significance: The current outcomes provide valuable guidelines for designing individualized robotassisted training protocols, potentially promoting the clinical rehabilitation effect.
Keywords: Rehabilitation robot, Motor function recovery, Training strategy, unilateral/bilateral training, multiple-modality feedback
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Chai, Zhang, Song, Shi, Xu and Zuo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Guohong Chai, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo, China
Jiaji Zhang, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo, China
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