Neurological pathologies cause important and permanent disabilities in every day life. These pathologies can follow stoke, affecting two people per one thousand each year or cerebral palsy, affecting two births per one thousand each year. To date, the diagnosis and the rehabilitation of motor and cognitive problems has been carried out separately by different domains. For example, physiotherapists have focused on motor problems and neuropsychologists have focused on cognitive functions. However, a number of studies have demonstrated a link between motor and cognitive abilities in adults and children. The present study has three main aims: (1) to better evaluate motor and cognitive problems in brain damaged patients (all ages), (2) to understand the link between motor and cognitive abilities in patients and healthy participants and, (3) to propose new types of therapies based on the link between motor and cognitive functions.
Congenital cerebral palsy and acquired brain injury children and adult patients
Presenting upper limb paresis and/or hemineglect
Between the age of 3 to 90.
Able to understand and carry out simple verbal instruction
IQ < 70
Severe aphasia, attentional disorder or psychiatric disorders
Neurodegenerative disorders
Parallel
Motor, cognitive and neuropsychological assessment
BehavioralCognitive and motor testing and/or experimental cognitive or motor changes and/or cognitive or motor rehabilitation depending on part of the study investigated.
Kinematics
Kinematics will be measured with a robotic tool called the REAplan. This tool is a distal effector robotic device that enables the patients to perform upper limb movements in a horizontal plane. The robot comprises a distal effector, a visual interface for the patient and a visual interface for the experimenter. It is fitted with incremental position sensors allowing the record of the distal effector's trajectory in the X and Y plane as function of time (125 Hz). From these records, all kind of quantitative and objective indices of upper limb quality of movement can be computed. Motor and cognitive tasks have been created on this device and have to be validated. These new tools on the robot provide a more accurate measure to better understand the participant's motor and cognitive functioning through kinematics analyses. Moreover, the robot can be used as a rehabilitative device, providing cognitive and motor assistance for specific exercises depending on participant performance.
Standardized cognitive and motor assessment
Cognition and motor performance will be also measured with standardized paper and pencil tests, scales and questionnaires using the three dimensions of the International Classification of Functioning (Body structure and function / Activity limitation / Participation restriction).
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