Assessing Upper Extremity Motor Function in Practice of Virtual Activities of Daily Living

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the criterion validity of measures of upper extremity (UE) motor function derived during practice of virtual activities of daily living (ADLs). Fourteen hemiparetic stroke patients employed a Virtual Occupational Therapy Assistant (VOTA), consisting of a high-fidelity virtual world and a Kinect™ sensor, in four sessions of approximately one hour in duration. An Unscented Kalman Filter-based human motion tracking algorithm estimated UE joint kinematics in real-time during performance of virtual ADL activities, enabling both animation of the user’s avatar and automated generation of metrics related to speed and smoothness of motion. These metrics, aggregated over discrete sub-task elements during performance of virtual ADLs, were compared to scores from an established assessment of UE motor performance, the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT). Spearman’s rank correlation analysis indicates a moderate correlation between VOTA-derived metrics and the time-based WMFT assessments, supporting the criterion validity of VOTA measures as a means of tracking patient progress during an UE rehabilitation program that includes practice of virtual ADLs.

Testing the concurrent validity of a naturalistic upper extremity reaching task

“…With these measures, we found that the systematic addition of the naturalistic task’s components into the standard task still maintained strong concurrent validity, and supports previous findings (Danion and Sarlegna, 2007). While more detailed kinematic analyses of the hand’s path or individual limb segments/joints may have provided additional insights, we did not constrain movement patterns in order to afford self-selection in movement strategy and to allow the motion to be as naturalistic as possible (Reinkensmeyer, 2010); thus, the current study design likely yielded highly variable joint coordination patterns within and between participants (Adams et al, 2015; Bufton et al, 2014; Gates et al, 2012; Petuskey et al, 2007; Srinivasan and da Silva, 2011; Wisneski and Johnson, 2007) and multiple planning mechanisms (Desmurget et al, 1997; Scheidt and Rymer, 2000), which is consistent with goal-directed movement in daily life (Bailey et al, 2014). We therefore restricted our analyses to global temporal and spatial variables of the end effector in this study.…”

An intelligent, adaptive, performance‐sensitive, and virtual reality‐based gaming platform for the upper limb

“…However, in comparison with previous studies, 35 which speaks on tonic inhibition as an indicator of post-stroke functional recovery, similar trends (reduction in Tonic MEAN ) shown with our system indicate less stress level and further promote post-stroke recovery. Pioneering contributions 13,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]32,47 used for stroke rehabilitation are powerful; often employ robots that are costly and heavy, posing financial and safety burdens on the patient; and, in some cases, have been reported to be limited in their ability to have a significant impact on one's daily living activities. Wearable sensors, such as CyberGrasp, used in stroke rehabilitation can provide force feedback to the user; besides being expensive, such wearable sensors often require uncomfortable mechanical plug for mounting on one's hand, making it inconvenient for use by patients.…”

Design and Analysis of Cloud Upper Limb Rehabilitation System Based on Motion Tracking for Post-Stroke Patients

“…Mobini et al designed a ball game to measure the hand movements and assess the intra-session and inter-session reliability of upper limb performance indices in patients [8]. Adams et al designed a Virtual Occupational Therapy Assistant (VOTA) for upper limb motor function measurement, and investigated performance indicators, which were generated during the practice of virtual daily activities [9]. A Kinect cardiovascular rehabilitation system was used to enable participants to perform exercises independently and individually at home [10]; the questionnaire survey showed that most of the subjects enjoyed this system.…”