Increasing motor cortex activation during grasping via novel robotic mirror hand therapy: a pilot fNIRS study.
Journal:
Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation
PMID:
35073933
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mirror therapy (MT) has been used for functional recovery of the affected hand by providing the mirrored image of the unaffected hand movement, which induces neural activation of the cortical hemisphere contralateral to the affected hand. Recently, many wearable robots assisting the movement of the hand have been developed, and several studies have proposed robotic mirror therapy (RMT) that uses a robot to provide mirrored movements of the unaffected hand to the affected hand with the robot controlled by measuring electromyography or posture of the unaffected hand. In some cases of RMT a mirror is placed to allow the person to observe only the unaffected hand but in others users simply observe the robotically assisted hand performing the mirrored movements, as was the case in this study. There have been limited evaluations of the cortical activity during RMT compared to MT and robotic therapy (RT) providing passive movements despite the difference in the modality of sensory feedback and the involvement of motor intention, respectively.