Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Investigating The Combined Effects Of Whole Body Vibration And Vestibular Stimulation On Spasticity And Dystonia In Cerebral Palsy, Peter A. Michael

Dissertations

This study identifies and addresses three voids and potential shortcomings associated with the classification, assessment and management of Cerebral Palsy (CP). These concerns should not undermine the significant advancement that has been made in this specific branch of rehabilitation, but addressing them is necessary. Cerebral Palsy is a group of motor impairments due to hypoxic-ischemic brain damage around the time of birth and very commonly manifests as excessive muscle tone and poor motor control. There are classifications within CP including spasticity and dystonia.

First, a level of discrepancy is present in the classification of CP between the clinical and research …

Evaluation Of An Actuated Wrist Orthosis For Use In Assistive Upper Extremity Rehabilitation, Devon Holley

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological condition caused by damage to motor control centers of the brain. This leads to physical and cognitive deficiencies that can reduce an individual’s quality of life. Specifically, motor deficiencies of the upper extremity can make it difficult for an individual to complete everyday tasks, including eating, drinking, getting dressed, or combing their hair. Physical therapy, involving repetitive tasks, has been shown to be effective in training normal motion of the limb by invoking the neuroplasticity of the brain and its ability to adapt in order to facilitate motor learning. Creating a device for use …

Markerless Analysis Of Upper Extremity Kinematics During Standardized Pediatric Assessment, Jacob R. Rammer

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy experience reduced motor performance in the affected upper extremity and are typically evaluated based on degree of functional impairment using activity-based assessments such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children Upper Extremity Evaluation (SHUEE), a validated clinical measure, to describe performance prior to and following rehabilitative or surgical interventions. Evaluations rely on subjective therapist scoring techniques and lack sensitivity to detect change. Objective clinical motion analysis systems are an available but time-consuming and cost-intensive alternative, requiring uncomfortable application of markers to the patient. There is currently no available markerless, low-cost system that quantitatively assesses upper extremity …

Comparative Study On Posture And Its Influences On Horizontal Ground Reaction Forces Generated By Muscles: Implications For Crouch Gait, Hoa Xuan Hoang

Masters Theses

Crouch gait decreases walking efficiency due to the increased knee and hip flexion during the stance phase of gait. Crouch gait is generally considered to be disadvantageous for patients with cerebral palsy; however, a crouched posture may afford biomechanical advantages that lead some patients to adopt a crouch gait.

To investigate one possible advantage of crouch gait, a musculoskeletal model created in OpenSim was placed in 15 different postures from upright to severe crouch during initial, middle, and final stance of the gait cycle. A series of optimizations were performed for each posture to maximize ground reaction forces for the …

Development Of A Toolbox For The Kinematic Evaluation Of Hands-Up Video Games, Brooke Marie Odle

Theses

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often have limited upper extremity (UE) control, Virtual reality (VR) is a current technology being evaluated as a form of UE therapy for children with CP, The systems currently available have been developed with games that cannot be graded to match the skill level of children with severely impaired UE control. A novel video game platform, "Hands-Up", has been developed at New Jersey Institute of Technology. The platform features software that allows for the customization of games and encourages users to make purposeful UE movements. To quantify changes and improvement in movement due to increased …

Voice Onset Time Variation In Stop Consonant To Vowel Transitions, Abhishek Gunvant Parikh

Theses

Reduced duration, increased consistency, and improved intelligibility are goals of reducing the motor complexity of speech for individuals with cerebral palsy having dysarthria. In this study, measurement and analysis were made to compare an individual with spastic Cerebral Palsy (CP) having dysarthria to an individual with athetoid CP having dysarthria as well as to a non-dysarthric individual. Each participant's normal speech, whispering, and speech using an artificial larynx was evaluated, utilizing the source-filter theory methodology. The plausibility of dysarthric speech duration reduction by minimizing vocalization is tested by stop consonant "P,, to vowel transitions. The data suggest that speech duration …