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Taniel Winner
Ph.D. Thesis Proposal Presentation
Date: 8/31/2021
Time: 10:00 AM EST
Location/Meeting Link: https://bluejeans.com/8012314069/
Committee Members:
Lena Ting, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Gordon Berman, Ph.D.
Trisha Kesar, PT, Ph.D.
Young-Hui Chang, Ph.D.
Lewis Wheaton, Ph.D.
Title: Identifying individual-specific signatures of healthy and stroke gait dynamics for tailored gait rehabilitation
Abstract:
Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide, resulting in high inter-individual variability in stroke gait dysfunction amongst stroke survivors. Stroke gait deficits are complex and multifactorial, resulting in disruption to kinematics and kinetics in all paretic lower limb joints, stance and swing phases, and considerable inter-limb symmetry. Thus, no single intervention can ameliorate post-stroke gait deficits in all individuals -a potential reason why gait impairments persist at discharge from rehabilitation in over two-thirds of all stroke survivors. Advancing current individualized gait rehabilitation approaches, however, is limited by an inability to robustly identify individual-specific differences in gait impairments. In this proposal, I will develop a sensitive, data-driven, consistent tool using continuous, multi-joint gait dynamics to characterize individual-specific differences in stroke gait. In Aim 1, I will develop a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model to generate a robust kinematic gait signature for visualizing and comparing gait dynamics between able-bodied and stroke survivors. I hypothesize that the generated stroke gait signatures represent execution level, individual-specific gait impairments that may require different rehabilitation strategies. In Aim 2, I will investigate the functional and biomechanical interpretability of the gait signatures. In Aim 3, I will test the clinical applicability of gait signatures; I will evaluate the impact of a single session of exposure to Fast Functional Electrical Stimulation (FastFES), a novel gait rehabilitation paradigm, on stroke survivors’ gait signatures and relate these changes to clinically relevant biomechanical metrics such as improvement in ankle push-off. I anticipate that the developed gait signatures provide a better understanding (identification and quantification) of individual-specific gait impairments, necessary for the development of tailored rehabilitation approaches, with a long-term goal to target gait impairments and improve functional mobility amongst stroke survivors.
