Upper-Limb Rehabilitation

In the Augmented Perception for Upper-Limb Rehabilitation study experimenters were looking at different hand postures and movements used in everyday skills. This was evaluated through identifying different motions of the arms, elbows, wrist, and fingers, and imitating these motions. With respect to identifying the motion, the participant either with or without a headset on, heard a beep, saw two stick figure arms, then saw either the left or right arm move and perform 1 of 4 actions (wiggle, point, fist, or elbow). The independent variables in this case were the 4 motions performed, either with or without the virtual reality headset on, and which limb moved. The dependent variable in this experiment was the reaction time, taken from the moment …show more content…
During this round, the participant would hear the beep, see the left or right arm move, and one of the four motions performed, then would perform the action himself at the sound of the second beep. The independent variables here were the left and right limbs, the four motions performed, with or without the headset, speed of the motion of the limbs, and the number of repetitions performed. The dependent variables were the reaction time it took the subject from hearing the second beep to starting the imitation phase, along with how well the subject could reproduce the action …show more content…
Visual information provides the basis for control and coordination. This means that during the experiment, by watching the limbs move, the observer was able to replicate that action without verbally having to know how to, or without seeing the muscles move. Just by watching the way the joints move in respect to one another; the observer was able to move in the same way. In this experiment, learning was done by a visual analysis of an animated stick arm performance. By watching the action of the arm, and putting in intentional attention, the observer was able to learn and then later recreate the actions. After going through multiple trials of watching the arms move and different motions occur, the subject should have been seen getting faster at identifying which arm is moving and which motion is being produced. When watching the monitor, after taking off the headset, whether doing the performance or stating the motion out loud, the performer could see which arm and which motion the experimenter was going to produce next, this could have decreased reaction times. When watching the animated limbs move only the visual cells were firing in the observer’s brain; but when it came to imitating the motions, mirror neurons would go off. This was not tested in this experiment, but is just an idea based off of what was covered in class to what