O1:
the technical design (software and hardware) of the BoMI included i) correct integration of EMG and IMUs signals, ii) study and design of the algorithms for the principal component and autoencoder used for dimensionality reduction; iii) programming of the task to be performed with the BoMI and relative evaluation protocol.
Ethical approval was obtained for both populations involved in the study.
The results of the experiment on healthy subjects allowed us to chose the linear algorithm based on principal component as the best algorithm to be used for the training of PwMS. Such training proved the hybrid BoMI to be an effective tool to exercize upper limb coordination. The training was well tollerated by PwMS that also improved in the clinical scales (FuglMeyer test for upper limbs, 9Hole peg tes).
O2:
Imaging data were acquired with a 3.0 Tesla Siemens Prisma scanner, equipped with a 64-channel head and neck coil. The MR imaging protocol included structural, diffusion DTI and resting state fMRI sequences for brain and spine. Results show that after BoMI training as expected PwMS did not report changes in lesion load. From DTI analysis there was an increase in FA of the corpus callosum that was correlated to an improvement of the clinical scale 9HPT. Such thing is also in line with the improvement in the proprioceptive task (O3). Additionally after training there was an increase of FC between the thalami and both cerebellar hemispheres and an increase of FC between both cerebellar hemisphere and the insula and superior temporal gyrus. These two networks are networks involving cortical areas responsible for sensory integration, motor modulation and execution. The fact that both hemispheres reported modifications is in line with the fact that the BoMI training was a bilateral training involving both upper limbs and therefore left and right brain hemispheres reported some modifications related also to improvements in the clinical tests (9HPG and FMUE).
O3:
A new proprioceptive task to assess upper limb three dimensional sense of proprioception by using an immersive virtual reality environment was developed and tested. It is implemented in Unity and it requires the Oculus and two controllers. In the VR environment, subjects performed 3different matching taks: unilateral, bimanual with and without memory. Each task consisted in reaching a target presented in the 3-D virtual space with one hand and then move the same (if the task is unilateral) or the other hand (if the task is bilateral) in order to match the position of the first moved hand. This second movement was performed with the subjects blind-folded such that they can only rely on their sense of proprioception to execute the movement. Results indicated that this test was able to differentiate proprioceptive deficit of PMS with respect to their control (age and sex matched) subjects. Moreover proprioceptive deficit of PwMS after BoMI training decreased, meaning that the complex nature of the body signals used by the BoMI and the way they are combined to carry out the rehabilitative task, made users more aware of their body movements.
Dissemination results:
- I submitted 2works to the IEEE International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics 2022.
- I organized a minisymposium at the IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering on Body-Machine Interface titled: “Body-machine interface for empowering humans: from rehabilitation to robot control”
- I participated at the event 'Science is wonderful! 2021'
- I was invited twice by Scuola di Robotica in Genoa to give two webinars strictly connected to my research topic.
- I shared my research experience and knowledge on human machine interfaces I gained in this project to master students (2nd year) of Robotics and Bioengineering programs at the University of Genova.
- As a Maire Curie fellow I was invited in 2021 and 2022 by the European Research Office of the university to give a talk about my project and my experience during the Masterclass MSCA organized for researchers interested in applying to the MSCA individual fellowship program.
