Recently, bilateral movement training based on robot-assisted rehabilitation systems has been attracting a lot of attention as a post-stroke motor rehabilitation protocol. Since humans generate coordinated motions based on their motor and sensory system, investigation of the innate properties of human motor and sensory systems may provide insight into planning of effective bilateral movement training in motion. In this study, therefore, we investigate the effects of proprioception and handedness on the movements of the contra-lateral upper limb, under both active and passive robot guidance conditions of the robot manipulators. Active and passive guidance-reproduction based bimanual tasks were used in this study; in these the subject is asked to hold both right and left knobs installed at the end-effectors of two robot manipulators. The results indicate that better reproducing performance was obtained when the proprioceptive input was acquired from the active guidance condition.

Keywords

Proprioception, Bilateral Movement, Active/Passive, Reproduction, Handedness, Rehabilitation

Paper information

Keunyoung PARK, Youngwoo KIM, Chikara NAGAI and Goro OBINATA, “Bilateral Transfer in Active and Passive Guidance-Reproduction of Upper Limbs Motion: Effect of Proprioception and Handedness”, Journal of Biomechanical Science and Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 2 (2012), pp.141-155 . doi:10.1299/jbse.7.141