TY - GEN
T1 - Multimodal Augmented Feedback for Functional Grasp Training Using a Smart Glove and Virtual Reality for Persons with Spinal Cord Injury
AU - Liu, Mingxiao
AU - Wilder, Samuel
AU - Sanford, Sean
AU - Dewil, Sophie
AU - Harel, Noam
AU - Nataraj, Raviraj
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 IEEE.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Spinal cord injury (SCI) can impair hand function needed for activities of daily living. Physical therapy is crucial to rehabilitating function but is time-and effort-intensive. Therefore, training approaches that facilitate greater engagement for faster motor learning are needed. In prior work, we showed how training with augmented feedback from an instrumented glove with computational intelligence to detect secure grasp could improve functional performance immediately. During training, feedback about secure grasp was provided with concurrent visual and audio (i.e., multimodal) cues. Furthermore, the cues were provided at progressively reduced time delays to induce a sense of agency (perception of control) as a cognitive basis to accelerate motor learning. In this study, we newly incorporated virtual reality (VR) with this glove system and training paradigm to enhance the augmented feedback and to assess its effects on persons with cervical-level incomplete SCI. Adding VR to the training regime significantly improved the performance of a grasp-and-place task by persons with SCI (n=6). Moreover, neural activity, as measured from scalp-surface electroencephalography (EEG), was significantly more pronounced after training with VR feedback. Performance improvement and increased neural activity suggest the potency for neuroplasticity and motor learning when adding VR enhancements to our training approach for clinical populations having severe neurological trauma such as SCI.
AB - Spinal cord injury (SCI) can impair hand function needed for activities of daily living. Physical therapy is crucial to rehabilitating function but is time-and effort-intensive. Therefore, training approaches that facilitate greater engagement for faster motor learning are needed. In prior work, we showed how training with augmented feedback from an instrumented glove with computational intelligence to detect secure grasp could improve functional performance immediately. During training, feedback about secure grasp was provided with concurrent visual and audio (i.e., multimodal) cues. Furthermore, the cues were provided at progressively reduced time delays to induce a sense of agency (perception of control) as a cognitive basis to accelerate motor learning. In this study, we newly incorporated virtual reality (VR) with this glove system and training paradigm to enhance the augmented feedback and to assess its effects on persons with cervical-level incomplete SCI. Adding VR to the training regime significantly improved the performance of a grasp-and-place task by persons with SCI (n=6). Moreover, neural activity, as measured from scalp-surface electroencephalography (EEG), was significantly more pronounced after training with VR feedback. Performance improvement and increased neural activity suggest the potency for neuroplasticity and motor learning when adding VR enhancements to our training approach for clinical populations having severe neurological trauma such as SCI.
KW - hand function
KW - movement rehabilitation
KW - spinal cord injury
KW - virtual reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166376040&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85166376040&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICVR57957.2023.10169674
DO - 10.1109/ICVR57957.2023.10169674
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85166376040
T3 - 2023 9th International Conference on Virtual Reality, ICVR 2023
SP - 435
EP - 440
BT - 2023 9th International Conference on Virtual Reality, ICVR 2023
T2 - 9th International Conference on Virtual Reality, ICVR 2023
Y2 - 12 May 2023 through 14 May 2023
ER -