Surface electromyography study of functional hand movements in hemiplegic stroke patients using an arm glove designed for home rehabilitation.

Due to increasing life expectancy, an aging population and shortages of healthcare workers, individualized yet adequate physiotherapeutic rehabilitation is becoming a problem. A new way to rehabilitate that can minimize therapist‟s individualized supervision time and maximize the stroke patient‟s rehabilitation time is needed. An affordable, well-designed robotic rehabilitation system that is easy to operate would provide the above. To do so through the use surface electromyography (sEMG) which senses muscle activities, would link intents and efforts of arm motions directly to the actual motion aided by an arm orthosis; an effective way to retrain brain-motor control that mimics „real life‟ situations. Furthermore, sEMG is able to provide biofeedback on muscle strategies employed. Thus, engages patients in active relearning and self-correction to spur true recovery and reduce behavioral recovery. Preliminary results obtained in 17 healthy and stroke subjects showed the feasibility of using sEMG to drive the orthosis through wrist extension and flexion. The results also support usage by severely-affected stroke patients. Unexpectedly, music, played-back electronically, was found to yield sEMG signals that corresponds to the accompany chords, tempo and volume. An exploratory study done seems to support the result of bodily responses rather than electromagnetic radiations possibly from the speakers.Bachelor of Science in Biological Science