Multimodal Pediatric Motor Recovery System

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective is to design, build, and clinically assess a Multimodal Pediatric Motor Recovery System, the PediAssist. Development will focus on functional motor recovery in the upper extremity of cerebral palsy (CP) patients. The PediAssist should improve the time course and amount of functional recovery from CP motor deficits. The system will utilize wearable stimulating and sensing technology to adaptively control a video game interface and provide a home-based system for continuing and monitoring therapy. A user worn game sleeve will be embedded with dry surface electromyography (EMG) recording electrodes, kinetic sensors, a stimulator unit, and a small radio transceiver. Movements, coordination patterns, and/or EMG levels will translate to clinician defined video game commands. Command thresholds and functional electrical stimulation (FES) to paralyzed muscles will be adaptively modulated based on user video game performance. Quantitative measures related to functional improvement will also be recorded and presented to clinicians. During Phase I, we hypothesize that 1) the wearable telemetry system will accurately record EMG and kinetic data and control game inputs 2) adaptive algorithms for modulating video game parameters and FES can be implemented, and 3) the system will provide effective feedback through the video game interface.