Author Spotlight: Advancing Upper Limb Rehabilitation in Patients with Right Hemisphere Damage Using Assisted Active Exercise

We are trying to address upper limb rehabilitation for spinal cord injury patients, and we have studied the effectiveness of assisted active exercise in functional occupational therapy for patients with right hemisphere damage. We currently used head rehabilitation robotics and the near-infrared functional brain imagining technology for our research. Challenges encountered so far include the need for the patient to keep his head stable during fNIRS testing and the need to carefully adjust to the optical and to ensure good quality channel signal.

Our findings suggest that patients should be fully motivated and assisted with active rehabilitation exercise rather than purely passive exercise in the future, as this is more effective in the rehabilitation training for brain function remodeling.