Motor and Cognitive Functions in Acquired and Developmental Brain Damaged Patients

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Motor, cognitive and neuropsychological assessment: Cognitive and motor testing and/or experimental cognitive or motor changes and/or cognitive or motor rehabilitation depending on part of the study investigated.

Study summary

Neurological pathologies cause important and permanent disabilities in every day life. These pathologies can follow stoke, affecting two people per one thousand each year or cerebral palsy, affecting two births per one thousand each year. To date, the diagnosis and the rehabilitation of motor and cognitive problems has been carried out separately by different domains. For example, physiotherapists have focused on motor problems and neuropsychologists have focused on cognitive functions. However, a number of studies have demonstrated a link between motor and cognitive abilities in adults and children. The present study has three main aims: (1) to better evaluate motor and cognitive problems in brain damaged patients (all ages), (2) to understand the link between motor and cognitive abilities in patients and healthy participants and, (3) to propose new types of therapies based on the link between motor and cognitive functions.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Kinematics — Change from Baseline (T0) in kinematics at an expected average of 1 week (T1), 2 months (T2) and 3 months (T3).
  Kinematics will be measured with a robotic tool called the REAplan. This tool is a distal effector robotic device that enables the patients to perform upper limb movements in a horizontal plane. The robot comprises a distal effector, a visual interface for the patient and a visual interface for the experimenter. It is fitted with incremental position sensors allowing the record of the distal effector's trajectory in the X and Y plane as function of time (125 Hz). From these records, all kind of quantitative and objective indices of upper limb quality of movement can be computed. Motor and cognitive tasks have been created on this device and have to be validated. These new tools on the robot provide a more accurate measure to better understand the participant's motor and cognitive functioning through kinematics analyses. Moreover, the robot can be used as a rehabilitative device, providing cognitive and motor assistance for specific exercises depending on participant performance.

Trial sites (2)

More Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc- Université Catholique de Louvain trials in Belgium

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