title: Psychophysiological responses to robot training in different recovery phases after stroke.
abstract: Psychophysiological responses have become a valuable tool in human-robot interaction since they provide an objective estimate of the user's psychological state. Unfortunately, their usefulness in rehabilitation robotics is uncertain since they are influenced by both physical activity and pathological conditions such as stroke. We performed psychophysiological measurements in subacute and chronic stroke patients as well as healthy controls during a reaching and grasping exercise task performed in a multimodal virtual environment. Furthermore, we evaluated the differences in kinematic and static parameters between the three groups of subjects. The results of the observed kinematic and static evaluation parameters showed significant differences when different assistive modes enabled the subject to focus on a particular function of the exercise, like reaching or grasping, or coordinated actions that combine reaching and grasping, reflecting the motor abilities of the individual. The analysis of psychophysiological responses suggests that both chronic and subacute stroke subjects have weaker psychophysiological responses than healthy subjects, though the responses of chronic patients have recovered somewhat. This certainly indicates that further studies are needed before psychophysiological responses can be used in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: University Rehabilitation Institute, Republic of Slovenia, Linhartova 51, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. nika.goljar@ir-rs.si
authors.forename: Nika
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goljar
authors.forename: Metka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Javh
authors.forename: Janja
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poje
authors.forename: Julija
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ocepek
authors.forename: Domen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.forename: Jaka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ziherl
authors.forename: Andrej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olenšek
authors.forename: Matjaž
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mihelj
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Munih
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011603:Psychophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000502:physiology