![]() In most cases, the physical interface is not used in isolation and requires at least a computer interface and possibly a virtual environment to deliver the therapy. ![]() One currently active research direction concerns the use of novel technological means for the rehabilitation treatment, mainly robotic and virtual reality systems. In this respect, arm and hand function rehabilitation is fundamental and is attracting much attention from the research community. The final goal of poststroke rehabilitation is to permit patients to independently perform activities of daily living (ADLs), thus facilitating reintegration into social and domestic life, in safe conditions. ![]() Several studies demonstrate that traditional interventions in the acute phase make the recovery of the motor activities easier, since most motor and functional recovery occurs within the first 3 to 6 months poststroke. ![]() The results of rehabilitation on poststroke motor and functional impairment are related to the time between the traumatic event and the beginning of the therapy. Animal studies have shown that an enriched poststroke recovery environment can induce structural plastic changes in the brain such as decreased infarct volume and increased dendritic branching, spine density, neurotrophic factors, cell proliferation and neurogenesis. Early after a stroke, the brain can undergo dramatic plastic changes that can be further enhanced by environmental stimulation. Motor learning can be described as “a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for producing skilled action”. Motor learning is a complex process and to date there is still a lack of knowledge on how the sensory motor system reorganizes in response to movement training. The rationale for doing motor rehabilitation is that the motor system is plastic following stroke and can be influenced by motor training. Improving the outcome of movement therapy after stroke is thus a major societal goal that received a lot of interest in the last decade from many researchers in the medical and engineering fields.Īfter the acute phase, stroke patients require continuous medical care and rehabilitation treatment, the latter being usually delivered as both individual and group therapy. These impressive numbers are increasing due to aging and lifestyle in developed countries. In the EU, there are 200 to 300 stroke cases per 100,000 every year, and about 30% survive with major motor deficits. Stroke is the leading cause of movement disability in the USA and Europe. Finally, several scenarios are proposed in which the use of auditory feedback may contribute to overcome some of the main limitations of current rehabilitation systems, in terms of user engagement, development of acute-phase and home rehabilitation devices, learning of more complex motor tasks, and improving activities of daily living. In particular, a comparative quantitative analysis over a large corpus of the recent literature suggests that the potential of auditory feedback in rehabilitation systems is currently and largely underexploited. Current uses of auditory feedback in the context of technology-assisted rehabilitation are then After a brief introduction on rehabilitation robotics, the main concepts of auditory feedback are presented, together with relevant approaches, techniques, and technologies available in this domain. The goal of this paper is to address a topic that is rarely investigated in the literature of technology-assisted motor rehabilitation, that is, the integration of auditory feedback in the rehabilitation device.
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