Facilities

Overview

The lab space is approximately 15’ x 12’. The primary equipment includes an 12 sensor electromagnetic kinematic system for bilateral upper extremity tracking (Ascension trakSTAR system with 8mm sensors), 16 channel A/D board, an 8 channel Noraxon 1400L surface EMG system for the upper extremities, 4 event sensor switches that act as event markers, and 2 small load cells, all integrated through use of MotionMonitor software via a Dell Desktop base station. Additionally there are 8 Actigraph GT3XP-BTLE 2GB Activity Monitors (wrist worn accelerometers) and 2 Actigraph GT9X Links (gyroscope, magnetometer, and secondary accelerometer) currently used to quantify upper extremity movement in participants post-stroke. Equipment also includes a few behavioral testing kits (Wolf Motor Function Test, the Upper Extremity Fugl-Meyer, Chedoke Arm and Hand Activity Index, etc.). There are 2 basic work stations (in addition to the kinematic system) with a printer and a portable research laptop for off-site data collection.  

Wrist-worn accelerometers are used to quantify and compare movement of the upper extremities and a Matlab program is used to provide feedback based on accelerometer data.

The lab uses a kinematic system for studying movement of the upper extremities and surface electromyography (EMG) to record muscle activity. Motion Monitor software is used to provide a three-dimensional model of the data.

Various outcome measures are used to assist with clinical application of data collected in the lab.