This project involves developing an advanced rehabilitation device that helps post-stroke patients regain their mobility.
Postdoctoral fellow: Dr. Babak Taati, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto
Lead faculty member: Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto
Each year, about 50,000 Canadians suffer from a stroke and 75% of them are left with a post-stroke disability or impairment. The economic costs of strokes are $3.6 billion a year. Our proposal involves developing an advanced rehabilitation device that helps post-stroke patients regain their mobility. Such patients often suffer from partial paralysis due to brain tissue damage during the stroke. While the physical brain damage could somewhat recover over time, the mobility problems often persist as a “learned paralysis” that settles during recovery. Even if the damage is permanent, neuroplasticity allows for restoring motor control through reallocation of brain resources. The proposed project applies advanced computer vision, haptics, and visualization techniques to develop a brain training system for helping stroke patients regain their mobility. The system will induce ownership over a computer animated body part and will provide positive visual feedback to retrain the neural system.