Cerebral Palsy Advice Group

Engineers at MIT have made great breakthroughs in the use of robotic therapy to treat cerebral palsy and other brain injuries, helping children to better control of their arms and legs.

According to a press release earlier this month, MIT researchers say that the use of cerebral palsy robotic therapy has the potential to help children grow new pathways in the brain that could help them regain upper and lower body motor control lost due to the underlying brain damage that caused cerebral palsy.

The engineers have already successfully tested robotic device treatment on stroke patients, and they are now applying those results to expand the potential cerebral palsy treatment options.

The team’s robot-assisted therapy for cerebral palsy utilizes robot devices that gently guide limbs to move in the proper manner. Through repetition, and by getting the patient to want to move the limb, the brain can be convinced to regrow neural pathways destroyed by cerebral palsy, strokes and other brain damage. The new pathways can potentially allow the patient to regain some previously lost measure of limb control.

In the cerebral palsy robot therapy, children make use of a video game-like simulation by taking hold of a handle and guiding a robotic arm to grab an object. When they move in the wrong direction, or do not move at all, the machine gently guides them toward their goal.

MIT engineers say that about 400 repetitions per hour of therapy are needed to stimulate the proper brain activity, and that previous work with stroke patients show that the patient must make a conscious effort to want to improve motor control.

Pilot studies showed that 36 children saw a decrease in impairment and an increase in the smoothness of limb motion after the therapy.

Read More: Science Daily”