Clinical Technology Innovations Research Area, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Piazza S, Onofrio 4, Rome, Italy.
J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2012 Jul 24;9:49. doi: 10.1186/1743-0003-9-49.
The potential of robot-mediated therapy and virtual reality in neurorehabilitation is becoming of increasing importance. However, there is limited information, using neuroimaging, on the neural networks involved in training with these technologies. This study was intended to detect the brain network involved in the visual processing of movement during robotic training. The main aim was to investigate the existence of a common cerebral network able to assimilate biological (human upper limb) and non-biological (abstract object) movements, hence testing the suitability of the visual non-biological feedback provided by the InMotion2 Robot.
A visual functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) task was administered to 22 healthy subjects. The task required observation and retrieval of motor gestures and of the visual feedback used in robotic training. Functional activations of both biological and non-biological movements were examined to identify areas activated in both conditions, along with differential activity in upper limb vs. abstract object trials. Control of response was also tested by administering trials with congruent and incongruent reaching movements.
The observation of upper limb and abstract object movements elicited similar patterns of activations according to a caudo-rostral pathway for the visual processing of movements (including specific areas of the occipital, temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes). Similarly, overlapping activations were found for the subsequent retrieval of the observed movement. Furthermore, activations of frontal cortical areas were associated with congruent trials more than with the incongruent ones.
This study identified the neural pathway associated with visual processing of movement stimuli used in upper limb robot-mediated training and investigated the brain's ability to assimilate abstract object movements with human motor gestures. In both conditions, activations were elicited in cerebral areas involved in visual perception, sensory integration, recognition of movement, re-mapping on the somatosensory and motor cortex, storage in memory, and response control. Results from the congruent vs. incongruent trials revealed greater activity for the former condition than the latter in a network including cingulate cortex, right inferior and middle frontal gyrus that are involved in the go-signal and in decision control. Results on healthy subjects would suggest the appropriateness of an abstract visual feedback provided during motor training. The task contributes to highlight the potential of fMRI in improving the understanding of visual motor processes and may also be useful in detecting brain reorganisation during training.
机器人介导的治疗和虚拟现实在神经康复中的潜力变得越来越重要。然而，使用神经影像学来描述这些技术训练所涉及的神经网络的信息有限。本研究旨在检测机器人训练过程中运动视觉处理所涉及的大脑网络。主要目的是研究是否存在一个共同的大脑网络，能够同化生物（人体上肢）和非生物（抽象物体）运动，从而测试 InMotion2 机器人提供的视觉非生物反馈的适用性。
对 22 名健康受试者进行了视觉功能磁共振成像（fMRI）任务。该任务要求观察和检索运动手势以及机器人训练中使用的视觉反馈。检查了生物和非生物运动的功能激活，以确定在两种情况下激活的区域，以及上肢与抽象物体试验之间的差异活性。还通过进行一致和不一致的到达运动试验来测试反应控制。
观察上肢和抽象物体运动引起了类似的运动视觉处理模式（包括枕叶、颞叶、顶叶和额叶的特定区域）。同样，在随后检索观察到的运动时也发现了重叠的激活。此外，额叶皮质区域的激活与一致的试验比不一致的试验更为相关。
本研究确定了与上肢机器人介导训练中使用的运动刺激视觉处理相关的神经通路，并研究了大脑同化抽象物体运动与人体运动手势的能力。在这两种情况下，大脑中涉及视觉感知、感觉整合、运动识别、在躯体感觉和运动皮层上重新映射、存储在记忆中以及反应控制的区域都被激活。在一致和不一致的试验中，前者的条件比后者的条件引起更大的活动，涉及扣带皮层、右下和中额回，这些区域涉及到“去”信号和决策控制。对健康受试者的研究结果表明，在运动训练过程中提供抽象视觉反馈是合适的。该任务有助于提高对视觉运动过程的理解，并可能有助于在训练过程中检测大脑重组。
