Seeing
that I am a neuroscience major and premedical student, the comparison between
traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients and normal subjects provides an
interesting comparison. Haptics technology is increasingly applied to help
understand problems of movement and possible treatments. Thanks to the Office of Student Scholarship,
Creative Activities, and Research, I have been funded to study “Do normal and
traumatic brain injured research subjects use virtual tools in a similar
fashion?” in the upcoming spring 2015 semester.
I was
first introduced to haptic devices in my Introduction to Clinical Research
class in spring 2014. Another student was analyzing the motor and cognitive
differences between research subjects with and without TBI in a virtual
environment using haptic technology. During the summer of 2014, I volunteered
in the lab and began analyzing the differences between the two groups (normal
and TBI subjects).
A haptic
device is one that senses body’s movements and involves physical contact
between the computer and the user, usually through an input/output device, such
as a joystick or data gloves. Haptic
technology makes it possible to investigate components of movement and
determine relative contributions of touch and position sense (proprioception)
to better understand how people learn and improve their motor activity. Human
movement is, in part a result of what happens in the pre-motor cortex and the
motor cortex, how these signals are transmitted into the periphery, and how the
person experiences the final interaction.
When I am
in the lab, I time the specific movements and calculate both efficiency and
accuracy from the data of each subject. Then, I analyze the differences between the
two subject groups and seek a comparison to see if one group performs the tasks
more accurately and efficiently. This week in the lab I finally obtained the
distance data I need to compare to the timed movements. This project ultimately seeks to determine if
there are fine motor performance and sensory (proprioceptive) differences
between people with TBI and those without TBI. This will be measured using haptic
devices in virtual environments. Haptic devices can capture position and force
data while subjects are performing functional tasks. The main goal of my
research is to figure out how to measure proprioception, which is a complex
sensation. Proprioception provides us with position sense and knowledge of
where we are in space. People with TBI often have difficulty with motor
function and coordination. Loss of
proprioception may contribute to this problem. My lab has a haptic device that
measures the interaction between movement and objects in virtual space: the
Phantom OMNI. This device has a stylus, held by the subject and provides force
feedback when in the virtual environment, just like most video game
controllers. Movement of the stylus can be recorded in real time so that its
positon, and the position of the hand and virtual object, can be tracked in
real time.
I expect
to be able to differentiate the motor differences between the two patient
groups and find what, if any, aspect of this experiment shows a proprioceptive
deficit. This study will also help answer the question of how sensitive the
haptic is for identifying differences between the two groups. In addition, I
hope to learn more about how haptics can contribute to patients with motor
deficiencies such as Parkinson’s, make a contribution to the field of haptics,
and further our understanding of brain function.
