Development of Rehabilitation System That Controls Learned Non-use of Paretic Arm in Chronic Patients with Stroke

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K22855
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 61:Human informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Owaki Dai 東北大学, 工学研究科, 准教授 (40551908)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 大内田 裕 大阪教育大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (80510578)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 慢性期脳卒中患者 / 学習性不使用 / リハビリテーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to develop a rehabilitation system to overcome the greatest barrier in rehabilitation for stroke patients, “learned non-use of the paretic arm”. Chronic stroke patients with hemiplegia are known to learn not to use the paretic arm due to functional decline of the paretic arm and excessive use of the healthy arm, which is called “learned non-use". This learned non-use causes negative use-dependent plasticity in the brain, resulting in the shrinkage of brain regions involved in motor control of the paretic arm. This change further reduces the frequency of use of the paretic arm, which contributes to further functional decline. In this study, we developed a wearable sensor that measures the use of both arm by surface electromyography (EMG) in order to control use-dependent plasticity of the paretic arm.

Free Research Field

ニューロリハビリテーション

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

脳卒中(脳血管疾患)は，日本人の死因第4位，年間死亡数は約12万人，総患者数111万5000人，年間29万人以上が発症すると試算されている．要介護になる要因の第2位（約20%），国民医療費は約1兆8000億円となっている(2017年厚生労働省)．脳卒中は脳組織にダメージを与える疾患でるため，上下肢の運動麻痺が主症状としておこり，15-30%の患者が恒久的な機能障害を呈する．社会復帰のためにはリハビリが必要となる．本研究成果が発展することにより，QOL(Quality of Life)を向上させる上肢機能の回復をもたらす．多くの脳卒中患者の福音となり社会的意義も大きい．