Impact of a rehabilitation program on EMG-EMG coherence in stroke patients

This research project regards the rehabilitation programs of stroke patients, and how to improve the understanding of their effectiveness. Although it is recognized that rehabilitation programs help stoke patients with motor recovery, the extent and progression of raw neural adaptation over the rehabilitation process often remains invisible to the physiotherapist, despite the presence of biomedical tools (EMG, EEG, etc) available that can combat said invisibility. This research will analyze the frequency of correlations between muscle activation (EMG-EMG coherence) in the flexor and extensor muscles of the foot in post stroke patients while they walk. The analysis will occur once a week in conjunction with a traditional functional analysis from a physiotherapist. The coherence, or unity, of the muscles detected from EMG-EMG coherence will be assigned a magnitude using a time-frequency correlation analysis. The student will then assess the relationship between the clinical analysis and the determined coherence magnitudes. It is expected that with an increase in coherence magnitude, there will be an increase in observed motor improvement by the physiotherapist.

Faculty Supervisor:

Olav Krigolson

Student:

Shayla Zeitz

Partner:

Discipline:

Physics / Astronomy

Sector:

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Globalink