StimuLOOP: Precision sensorimotor neurorehabilitation through personalized stimulation loops

Andreas Luft (USZ/UZH), Roger Gassert (ETHZ), Christian Baumann (USZ),

William Taylor (ETHZ), Reto Huber (KISPI/PUK/UZH), Julia Vogt (ETHZ

 

Summary: Parkinson’s disease (PD) and stroke lead to a considerable socioeconomic burden for patients and health systems worldwide. Neurorehabilitation includes treatments to reduce disability, but their efficacies vary largely between individuals, and frequently fail to achieve meaningful outcomes. Here, we propose four novel approaches to personalized neurorehabilitation – methods that are precision-engineered for each patient and based on neuroplasticity mechanisms. We will conduct proof-of-concept studies to test whether personalized haptic feedback improves gait quality and mobility after stroke and whether neurofeedback-based self-modulation of activity in deep brain regions improves gait and mobility in PD.

Both interventions induce fast adaptations which may be quickly forgotten. They will therefore be followed by two methods to facilitate consolidation of learned motor outcomes. These methods involve the personalized modulation of sleep so that consolidation processes, which are known to occur during sleep, amplify the longer-term benefits. Finally, we will interrogate the gait quality data of subjects to identify predictors for recovery in stroke and PD rehabilitation. Beyond proof-of-concept for methods of precision rehabilitation, the results of this project may impact neurorehabilitation treatment in general by providing an understanding of the role of feedback and sleep consolidation.

Video presentation of “StimuLOOP” on the occasion of the Kick-off Event from April 20, 2021 (german language)

Publications

Salzmann L, Bichsel O, Ravi DK, Lestoille M, Easthope CA, Baumann CR, Luft AR, Taylor WR, Gassert R, Lambercy O. 2023. Neurofeedback for precision rehabilitation of Parkinson’s patients. Brain Stimulation: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2023.01.518

Conde C, Lang C, Baumann CR, Easthope CA, Taylor WR, Ravi DK.  Triggers for Freezing of Gait in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review. Movement Disorders Clinical Practice. Front. Neurol., 21 December 2023 DOI=10.3389/fneur.2023.1326300

Sutter TM, Manduchi L, Ryser A, Vogt JE. 2023. Learning Group Importance using the Differentiable Hypergeometric Distribution. The Eleventh International Conference on Learning Representations, ICLR 2023, Kigali, Rwanda.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.01629

Sutter* TM, Ryser* A, Liebeskind J, Vogt JE. 2023. Differentiable Random Partition Models. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 36. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2305.16841

Manduchi* L, Vandenhirtz* M, Ryser A, Vogt JE. 2023. Tree Variational Autoencoder. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 36. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.08984

Pre-prints

Rohr-Fukuma M, Stieglitz LH, Bujan B, Jedrysiak P, Oertel MF, Salzmann L, Baumann CR, Imbach LL, Gassert R, Bichsel O. 2023. Neurofeedback-enabled beta power control with a fully implanted DBS system in patients with Parkinson’s disease. MedRxiv.  https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.22.23290293

Ermöglicht durch:

Individual Neurorehabilitation

↑ Interview with Prof. Luft (in German)

Project Overview

Lead:

 

Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Luft, Head Stroke Center, University Hospital Zurich

 

Prof. Dr. Ing. Roger Gassert, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich

 

Duration: 2021 – 2026

 

Universities: ETH Zurich, University of Zurich

 

Hospitals: University Hospital Zurich, University Children’s Hospital Zurich

 

Researchers: 18

 

Partners: 4

 

Patients: 60 (30 Parkinson, 30 Stroke)