Motor Imagery Training of Reaching-to-Grasp Movement Supplemented by a Virtual Environment in an Individual With Congenital Bilateral Transverse Upper-Limb Deficiency

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Joanna Mencel¹  Anna Jaskólska¹  Jarosław Marusiak¹  Łukasz Kamiński¹  Marek Kurzyński²  Andrzej Wołczowski³  Artur Jaskólski¹  Katarzyna Kisiel-Sajewicz¹ 

[1] Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education in Wrocław;Department of Systems and Computer Networks, Faculty of Electronics, Wrocław University of Science and Technology;Department of Fundamental Cybernetics and Robotics, Institute of Computer Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology

关键词: mental training;    reaching;    grasping;    EEG;    amelia;    neuroplasticity;    transplantation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.638780

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This study explored the effect of kinesthetic motor imagery training on reaching-to-grasp movement supplemented by a virtual environment in a patient with congenital bilateral transverse upper-limb deficiency. Based on a theoretical assumption, it is possible to conduct such training in this patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether cortical activity related to motor imagery of reaching and motor imagery of grasping of the right upper limb was changed by computer-aided imagery training (CAIT) in a patient who was born without upper limbs compared to a healthy control subject, as characterized by multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals recorded before and 4, 8, and 12 weeks after CAIT. The main task during CAIT was to kinesthetically imagine the execution of reaching-to-grasp movements without any muscle activation, supplemented by computer visualization of movements provided by a special headset. Our experiment showed that CAIT can be conducted in the patient with higher vividness of imagery for reaching than grasping tasks. Our results confirm that CAIT can change brain activation patterns in areas related to motor planning and the execution of reaching and grasping movements, and that the effect was more pronounced in the patient than in the healthy control subject. The results show that CAIT has a different effect on the cortical activity related to the motor imagery of a reaching task than on the cortical activity related to the motor imagery of a grasping task. The change observed in the activation patterns could indicate CAIT-induced neuroplasticity, which could potentially be useful in rehabilitation or brain-computer interface purposes for such patients, especially before and after transplantation. This study was part of a registered experiment (ID: {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT04048083","term_id":"NCT04048083"}} NCT04048083 ).

【 授权许可】

CC BY