Closing the Loop – Implementing Personalized Real-Time Biofeedback for Gait Rehabilitation in Stroke and Parkinson’s Patients
摘要
Stroke and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are prevalent neurological conditions causing significant disability in the elderly. Gait impairments are common targets for rehabilitation, yet responses to interventions vary widely. Within the scope of the StimuLOOP project, this monocentric, proof-of-concept clinical trial, is conducted to explore the efficacy of personalized real-time biofeedback for enhancing gait quality. Participants aged ≥18 years with stroke (≥30 days post-event, Functional Ambulation Category ≥3) or PD (UPDRS III gait/postural instability scores 1–3) undergo 15 days of personalized real-time biofeedback gait training. The dominant gait deficit of the participant is objectively evaluated in order to tailor the biofeedback by selecting a target parameter that the participant should actively modulate during training. Preliminary findings suggest participants are able to use personalized real-time biofeedback to adjust their dominant gait deficit, and subsequently maintain their gait adaptations in the absence of visual biofeedback. Ongoing analyses aim to validate these observations and expand our understanding of how motor learning evolves within and across these training sessions.