Study of multi-sensory stimulation for the design of hand rehabilitation equipment for stroke patients

Abstract

Stroke has long been a critical health issue in adults, affecting their physical, cognitive, and emotional functioning. The purpose of this study was to develop hand rehabilitation equipment based on multi-sensory stimulation therapy for stroke patients. An experiment was conducted with seventeen professional occupational therapists (each having more than five years of work experience) who individually evaluated the effectiveness of hand rehabilitation using seven hand gestures with two treatment approaches (top-down and bottom-up) and their corresponding six rehabilitation techniques (top-down: mirror therapy and auditory stimulation; bottom-up: tactile stimulation, thermal stimulation, electrical stimulation, and vibration stimulation). Our study used a within-subject partial hierarchical design, where rehabilitation techniques were partially nested within treatment approaches and crossed with hand gestures. Analyses of the three-way factorial analysis of variance showed that rehabilitation technique had a significant effect and that vibration stimulation and mirror therapy were most effective. Based on the findings of this study, multi-sensory stimulation equipment (combining vibration stimulation and mirror therapy) was designed to improve the sensorimotor ability of stroke patients.

Keywords:

• stroke
• hand rehabilitation
• sensorimotor