Effects of the multisensory rehabilitation product for home-based hand training after stroke on cortical activation by using NIRS methods. (19th January 2020) - Li, Qinbiao
Highlights: NIRS was designed to detect effect of stimulation on cortical activation response. Multisensory environment can induce cortical activation in most brain regions. Multisensory stimuli are more beneficial to neural activities and cognitive control. Activation of the motor cortex is closely related to the cognitive performance. Abstract: Objective: This study aimed to assess the effects of the multisensory rehabilitation product for stroke patients on cortical activation response through near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Methods: The music rehabilitation glove (MRG), multisensory rehabilitation product, was developed with a user-centered design concept. The 40-channel NIRS system monitored the cortical activation changes in the motor cortex (MC), prefrontal cortex (PFC), temporal lobe (TL) and occipital lobe (OL) of 22 young subjects during "sequential finger-to-thumb opposition movements (SFTOM)" phase of traditional training and "musical finger-to-thumb opposition movements (MFTOM)" phase of MRG training. Results: The two phases of training showed significant activation (P < 0.05) in the cerebral cortex compared with baseline, with more activation during MFTOM in the MC, PFC and TL. Compared with SFTOM, there were 22 channels of cortical activation in MFTOM that had significant enhancements (P < 0.05). There was also a significant positive correlation between the prefrontal cortex and motor cortex in the cortical activation. Conclusions: According to these results, MFTOM-induced cortical activation in the MC, PFC and TL with visual, auditory and tactile stimuli was stronger than SFTOM, providing evidence that the multisensory stimulation is more beneficial to cortical activation and cognitive control to promote neurological recovery.