Engineering Commons^™

Towards The Development Of Wearable Tremor Suppression Systems Combining Functional Electrical Stimulation And Mechanical Actuation, Zahra Habibollahi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most prevalent neurological disorder, is characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms including tremor. Wearable tremor suppression devices (WTSDs), have shown promising results for tremor reduction, using functional electrical stimulation (FES) or active actuators. However, results and study procedures are not consistent in the literature. Although stimulations below and above motor threshold can suppress tremor, the mechanisms of the first is still not clear, and the second might lead to muscle fatigue and discomfort over time. While active actuators have shown better results for tremor suppression, they are often heavy and bulky for daily use. Lastly, …

Pt-Net: A Multi-Model Machine Learning Approach For Smarter Next-Generation Wearable Tremor Suppression Devices For Parkinson's Disease Tremor, Anas Ibrahim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative condition that can cause tremors and other motor and non motor related symptoms. Medication and deep brain stimulation (DBS) are often used to treat tremor; however, medication is not always effective and has adverse effects, and DBS is invasive and carries a significant risk of complications. Wearable tremor suppression devices (WTSDs) have been proposed as a possible alternative, but their effectiveness is limited by the tremor models they use, which introduce a phase delay that decreases the performance of the devices. Additionally, the availability …

Effect Of Levodopa On Eeg Connectivity In Parkinson's Patients, Sepehr Torab Parhiz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Levodopa is a dopamine replacement medication administered to patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to alleviate their motor symptoms. However, its long-term use can cause adverse side effects, including involuntary motor movements. We studied 16 PD patients before and after taking Levodopa based on resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) recordings to determine how Levodopa affects the functional connectivity of their brain networks. We used several metrics from graph theory, in particular the minimum spanning tree (MST) metric, and analyzed how they change after subjects take Levodopa. We observed significant changes in the lower alpha band toward a more path-like and less globally efficient …

Real-Time Voluntary Motion Prediction And Parkinson's Tremor Reduction Using Deep Neural Networks, Anas Ibrahim, Yue Zhou, Mary E. Jenkins, Ana Luisa Trejos, Michael D. Naish

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Publications

Wearable tremor suppression devices (WTSD) have been considered as a viable solution to manage parkinsonian tremor. WTSDs showed their ability to improve the quality of life of individuals suffering from parkinsonian tremor, by helping them to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Since parkinsonian tremor has been shown to be nonstationary, nonlinear, and stochastic in nature, the performance of the tremor models used by WTSDs is affected by their inability to adapt to the nonlinear behaviour of tremor. Another drawback that the models have is their limitation to estimate or predict one step ahead, which introduces delay when used in …

A Wearable Mechatronic Device For Hand Tremor Monitoring And Suppression: Development And Evaluation, Yue Zhou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tremor, one of the most disabling symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), significantly affects the quality of life of the individuals who suffer from it. These people live with difficulties with fine motor tasks, such as eating and writing, and suffer from social embarrassment. Traditional medicines are often ineffective, and surgery is highly invasive and risky. The emergence of wearable technology facilitates an externally worn mechatronic tremor suppression device as a potential alternative approach for tremor management. However, no device has been developed for the suppression of finger tremor that has been validated on a human.

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Investigation Of Visual Perceptions In Parkinson's Disease And The Development Of Disease Monitoring Software, Matthew Bernardinis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Non-motor Parkinson’s Disease (PD) symptoms are substantial factors of PD arising throughout disease stages, yet their diagnosis and monitoring remain a challenge. Sensory abnormalities in PD occur across sensory systems and disease stages, contributing to disease-related impairments. However, the extent of symptoms is unknown, with inadequate monitoring and treatment options furthering disease management difficulties. The current work studies movement-independent visual perceptions of time, displacement and velocity in PD patients across disease stages using levodopa, deep brain stimulation (DBS), or no PD therapy. Perceptual tasks were conducted using a computer-generated graphical device designed with a focus on simplicity and flexibility. Perception …