The dynamics of the gait training process with rhythmic cueing for para-hemiplegic patients

In this research, we focused on the coordination functions of joint motions, which are necessary for the generation of the dynamic stability of the motor control. This coordination had not been dealt until now, and we reviewed the design principle of the support technology which may improve this coordination ability. Concretely, as the new experimental paradigm, we applied the para-hemiplegic patients wearing the orthosis which restricts the joints of the upper and lower limbs, and we measured the gait training process with the constant RAS (Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation) cueing. Then we analyzed the rhythmic and trajectory characteristics in the rhythmic pattern of the leg motion. As the results, it came out that the rhythmic characteristic is restructured as the unstable series which is susceptible to the external environment in this gait training method. On the other hand, it came out that the trajectory characteristic had an improvement process which involves the historical quality about 1 minute. This result indicated that the trajectory characteristic is restructured as the series which is less subject to the external environment. Now therefore, it was indicated that the one-sided stimulus presentation like RAS is inadequate to improve the rhythmic characteristics, and to support both characteristics technologically, the interactive training which is able to control the auditory stimulus presentation according to patient’s gait state is necessary.