TY - GEN
T1 - A myoelectric computer interface for reducing abnormal muscle activations after spinal cord injury
AU - Rizzoglio, Fabio
AU - Sciandra, Francesca
AU - Galofaro, Elisa
AU - Losio, Luca
AU - Quinland, Elisabetta
AU - Leoncini, Clara
AU - Massone, Antonino
AU - Mussa-Ivaldi, F. A.
AU - Casadio, Maura
N1 - Funding Information:
*equal contribution Research supported by the Marie Curie Integration Grant (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG-334201), the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel (Joint Israel-Italy lab in Biorobotics “Artificial somatosensation for humans and humanoids”), the NIDILRR Grant 90REGE0005-01, the NICHHD Grant 5R01HD072080 and the NIBIB Grant R01-EB024058 F.R., F.S, E.G. M.C are with the University of Genoa, 16145 Genova, Italy (fabio.rizzoglio@edu.unige.it, francesca.sciandra94@gmail.com, elisa.galofaro@edu.unige.it, maura.casadio@unige.it) L.L., E.Q., C.L., A.M. are with the S.C. Unità Spinale Unipolare, Santa Corona Hospital, ASL2 Savonese, Pietra Ligure, 17027 Savona, Italy (a.massone@asl2.liguria.it) F.A.MI, F.R. are with Northwestern University and the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA (sandro@northwestern.edu)
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 IEEE.
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - Myoelectric Computer Interfaces (MCIs) are a viable option to promote the recovery of movements following spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, or other neurological disorders that impair motor functions. We developed and tested a MCI interface with the goal of reducing abnormal muscular activations due to compensatory strategies or undesired co-contraction after SCI. The interface mapped surface electromyographic signals (sEMG) into the movement of a cursor on a computer monitor. First, we aimed to reduce the co-activation of muscles pairs: the activation of two muscles controlled orthogonal directions of the cursor movements. Furthermore, to decrease the undesired concurrent activation of a third muscle, we modulated the visual feedback related to the position of the cursor on the screen based on the activation of this muscle. We tested the interface with six unimpaired and two SCI participants. Participants were able to decrease the activity of the targeted muscle when it was associated with the visual feedback of the cursor, but, interestingly, after training, its activity increased again. As for the SCI participants, one successfully decreased the co-activation of arm muscles, while the other successfully improved the selective activation of leg muscles. This is a first proof of concept that people with SCI can acquire, through the proposed MCI, a greater awareness of their muscular activity, reducing abnormal muscle simultaneous activations.
AB - Myoelectric Computer Interfaces (MCIs) are a viable option to promote the recovery of movements following spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, or other neurological disorders that impair motor functions. We developed and tested a MCI interface with the goal of reducing abnormal muscular activations due to compensatory strategies or undesired co-contraction after SCI. The interface mapped surface electromyographic signals (sEMG) into the movement of a cursor on a computer monitor. First, we aimed to reduce the co-activation of muscles pairs: the activation of two muscles controlled orthogonal directions of the cursor movements. Furthermore, to decrease the undesired concurrent activation of a third muscle, we modulated the visual feedback related to the position of the cursor on the screen based on the activation of this muscle. We tested the interface with six unimpaired and two SCI participants. Participants were able to decrease the activity of the targeted muscle when it was associated with the visual feedback of the cursor, but, interestingly, after training, its activity increased again. As for the SCI participants, one successfully decreased the co-activation of arm muscles, while the other successfully improved the selective activation of leg muscles. This is a first proof of concept that people with SCI can acquire, through the proposed MCI, a greater awareness of their muscular activity, reducing abnormal muscle simultaneous activations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071183255&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85071183255&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779493
DO - 10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779493
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 31374768
AN - SCOPUS:85071183255
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics
SP - 1049
EP - 1054
BT - 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2019
PB - IEEE Computer Society
T2 - 16th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2019
Y2 - 24 June 2019 through 28 June 2019
ER -