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Archivio digitale delle tesi discusse presso l’Università di Pisa

Tesi etd-01232019-160110


Tipo di tesi
Tesi di laurea magistrale
Autore
GRANI, FABRIZIO
URN
etd-01232019-160110
Titolo
Effects of Cervical Epidural Electrical Stimulation on Arm Muscle Activations and Kinematics in a Non-Human Primate
Dipartimento
INGEGNERIA DELL'INFORMAZIONE
Corso di studi
BIONICS ENGINEERING
Relatori
relatore Micera, Silvestro
relatore Capogrosso, Marco
tutor Zhuang, Katie
controrelatore Vanello, Nicola
Parole chiave
  • cervical epidural electrical stimulation
  • recovery of reaching and grasping ability
  • spinal cord injury
Data inizio appello
15/02/2019
Consultabilità
Non consultabile
Data di rilascio
15/02/2089
Riassunto
Recovery of reaching and grasping ability is crucial for tetraplegic people. Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) has shown promising results in locomotion restoration in rats, monkeys and humans after spinal cord injury (SCI), therefore it could be a promising technique also for the restoration of upper limb movements.
My thesis wants to establish whether cervical EES is able to modulate and generate arm movements in monkeys. Behavioural experiments, during which a female Macaca Fascicularis performed a reach and pull task while she received cervical EES, have shown that: 1) The EMG signal increases or decreases according to the stimulation parameters, muscle and movement phase; 2) Muscle synergies change with the stimulation, meaning that cervical EES changes the muscle control strategy; 3) Cervical EES modulates the arm kinematics in healthy condition and generates movement after SCI.
These results lead to the conclusion that cervical EES can work for the restoration of upper limbs movements and open the path towards the research of a stimulation protocol that produces the exact movement desired.
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