Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE), Centre for Life Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117456, Singapore.
Laboratory for Brain-bionic Intelligence and Computational Neuroscience, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, 529020, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 7;8(1):13470. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31828-1.
In modern society, increasing people suffering from locomotor disabilities need an assistive exoskeleton to help them improve or restore ambulation. When walking is assisted by an exoskeleton, brain activities are altered as the closed-loop between brain and lower limbs is affected by the exoskeleton. Intuitively, a unilateral exoskeleton imposes differential effect on brain hemispheres (i.e., hemispherical effect) according to contralateral control mechanism. However, it is unclear whether hemispherical effect appears in whole hemisphere or particular region. To this end, we explored hemispherical effect on different brain regions using EEG data collected from 30 healthy participants during overground walking. The results showed that hemispherical effect was significantly different between regions when a unilateral exoskeleton was employed for walking assistance and no significance was observed for walking without the exoskeleton. Post-hoc t-test analysis revealed that hemispherical effect in the parietooccipital region significantly differed from other regions. In the parietooccipital region, a greater hemispherical effect was observed in beta band for exoskeleton-assisted walking compared to walking without exoskeleton, which was also found in the source analysis. These findings deepen the understanding of hemispherical effect of unilateral exoskeleton on brain and could aid the development of more efficient and suitable exoskeleton for walking assistance.
在现代社会中，越来越多的运动障碍患者需要辅助外骨骼来帮助他们改善或恢复行走能力。当外骨骼辅助行走时，大脑活动会发生改变，因为大脑和下肢之间的闭环会受到外骨骼的影响。直观地说，根据对侧控制机制，单侧外骨骼会对大脑半球产生不同的影响（即半球效应）。然而，目前尚不清楚半球效应是否出现在整个半球或特定区域。为此，我们使用从 30 名健康参与者在地面行走过程中收集的 EEG 数据，探索了不同脑区的半球效应。结果表明，当使用单侧外骨骼辅助行走时，不同脑区的半球效应存在显著差异，而在没有外骨骼的情况下行走时则没有显著差异。事后 t 检验分析表明，顶枕叶区域的半球效应与其他区域显著不同。在外骨骼辅助行走时，与不使用外骨骼相比，beta 波段的顶枕叶区域的半球效应更大，在源分析中也发现了这一结果。这些发现加深了对单侧外骨骼对大脑半球效应的理解，并有助于开发更高效、更适合辅助行走的外骨骼。
