Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of
Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human
Rehabilitation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 3-146, 77
Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA | Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Burke Medical Research Institute and Department of
Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College, Cornell University,
USA
Abstract: This article reviews a decade of work aimed at developing effective
interactive robotic tools to treat and understand motor impairment and
disability. The success of an initial pilot study with acute-phase in-patients
recovering from stroke prompted a larger study showing that these results could
be replicated and a follow-up study showing that the benefits lasted. Studies
of chronic-phase out-patients demonstrated that similar benefits could be
obtained which also lasted and were accompanied by a concomitant reduction of
pain. Exploration of the likely biology of recovery suggested an improvement of
robotic treatment in the form of performance-based progressive therapy aimed at
accelerating a process akin to motor learning postulated to underlie recovery.
Initial studies of this method show a dramatic improvement over the previous
successes. Kinematic studies of the recovery process show that, similar to the
development of motor behavior in infants, it begins with stereotyped
submovements and proceeds by progressively merging these to approach unimpaired
motor performance.
