Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8
FCR&ECR
FCR&B
I
C
4
0
Ses sion
5
ECR&T RI
ECR&B
IC
1
6
BI
C&TRI
FCR&TR
I
4
2
0
0
5
10
15
20
0
5
10
15
20
Ses sion
Figure 8.10
The co-contraction indexes of the muscle pairs during the training for the
tracking trials without assistance or resistance from the FES-robot system.
EMG activation levels for the flexors (i.e., FCR and BIC) had a quick decrease in
the first several training sessions; and after that, the EMG levels of the two flexors
were stable. It possibly implied that the FES-robot treatment might lead to a fast
spasticity reduction. In our previous studies on pure-robot assisted wrist or elbow
training, there was no steady state ever reached by the decreasing trend of muscle
activation levels within 20 training sessions (Hu
et al
. 2007; Hu
et al
. 2009).
The variations in the muscle co-contraction indexes during the FES-robot
assisted training were shown in
Figure 8.10
.
Decreasing trends were observed
in the muscle pairs of FCR&ECR, FCR&BIC, and ECR&TRI. The decrease of
FCR&ECR and FCR&BIC co-contraction indexes reached to their steady state in
the first half training sessions; and these decreases indicated a better co-ordination
of the muscles when doing the tracking even without the assistance from the FES-
robot system. The decrease of the ECR&TRI throughout the training sessions was
in accordance with the trend for the ECR activation level. It also implied that
the variation in the co-contraction of this pair of muscles was mainly caused by
the ECR. The results in the muscle co-contractions suggested that the individual
muscle activities had become more independent, and the elbow movements were
gradually isolated from those for the wrist. The FES-robot assisted wrist training
also showed a faster improvement in the muscle co-ordinations, measured by
the co-contraction indexes, in comparison with the previous pure robot assisted
training (Hu
et al
. 2007; Hu
et al
. 2009). It possibly implied that with the
involvement of FES, robot-assisted training could speed up the recovery process.
