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POPSRobot Therapy To 'Recharge' Stroke Victims' Arms
The other half are assigned to the robot group. This is less exciting than it sounds. The robot looks more like a garden-variety brace or splint that is strapped to the wrist, elbow or shoulder, depending on which joint is being used. A flat-screen computer monitor displays colorful dancing dots a la 1980s video games. Using a joystick, the patient is challenged to hit moving targets on the screen, using the stroke-weakened arm. If the patient cannot move the arm, the machine helps. If the machine senses any movement by the patient, it backs off, letting the injured arm do more of the work. Even if the patient at first cannot accomplish the task, the very act of thinking that the arm should move, then having it touch the correct target propelled by the robot, starts to restore or rebuild circuits in the brain, said Hermano Igo Krebs, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained mechanical engineer who developed the device known as MIT-Manus.
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