Developing an Intelligent Assessment and Rehabilitation System for Bilateral Upper Limb Coordination Control of Upper Extremity in Hemiparetic Subjects-Ii

Bilateral hand grasp coordination control plays an important role in daily activities. Stroke leads to motor impairment of paretic limbs and significantly affects the capability of bilateral hand grasp coordination control. So far, there are few studies investigated the quantitatively assessment system for bilateral hand grasp coordination control, impacting the designs of the training program and effects of rehabilitation for bilateral hands coordination in the stroke patient. Therefore, the purposes of this study are the following: to investigate the impact of bilateral hands coordination control and analyze the relationships between bilateral upper extremity coordination control deficits, daily activities and clinical assessments for people after stroke. This study will combine the developed equipment with the interface of a bilateral coordination control assessment system written in LabVIEW. Thirty healthy young people, thirty healthy elderly people and sixty chronic stroke adults will be recruited in this study, executing the performances in maximum grip force, bimanual coordination control with both hands at three target force levels and evaluating the clinical motor and functional performance assessments for people with stroke (Barth Index, Fugl-Meyer Assessment, FMA; Motor Assessment Score, MAS; Wlof Motor Function Test, WMFT; Minnesota Manual Dexterity Test, MMDT). The Multivariate analysis of variance or multiple analysis of variance(MANOVA) will be applied to compare the difference in bimanual coordination control between the three groups and two grasp conditions (dominate/ unaffected or non-dominate /affected) in three target force levels. The relationships between the performances in the bilateral handgrip force coordination timing, bilateral handgrip force stable value, FMA, MAS, WMFT and MMDT scores will be calculated with Spearman's correlation coefficients. SPSS version 16.0 statistical software was used. The alpha level for statistical significance is set at 0.05.