Rehabilitation Multi Sensory Room for Robot Assisted Functional Movements in Upper-limb Rehabilitation in Chronic Stroke

Robotic rehabilitation is promising to promote function in stroke patients. The assist as needed training paradigm has shown to stimulate neuroplasticity but often cannot be used because stroke patients are too impaired to actively control the robot against gravity. Aim of this study is to present a novel robotic approach based on fully assisted functional movements and to examine the effect of the intervention in terms of motor function improvement in subjects with chronic stroke in the short term and at 6-month follow up. A preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention in improving activity and participation in the short term is also performed. Further, the study aims to verify whether some instrumental measures (using kinematics, EMG and EEG) may help gain insight into the mechanisms leading to improved motor ability following the robotic intervention and can be used to predict functional recovery.