ArticleJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2020
Passive, yet not inactive: robotic exoskeleton walking increases cortical activation dependent on task.
Article in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Experiment protocols for brain-body imaging of locomotion: A systematic review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Efficacy of an exoskeleton-based physical therapy program for non-ambulatory patients during subacute stroke rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2021Trial
- The gait performance, sensorimotor cortical activation and their correlation during walking task among children with cerebral palsy: a fNIRS study.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Differences in brain function in cognitive impairment after stroke in different hemispheres of the brain: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.BMC neurology · 2026Article
- How aging impacts cortical dynamics and gait during dual-task turning revealed by fNIRS.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Dynamic brain synergy uncovers functional neural coordination in Parkinson's disease under dopaminergic modulation.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Towards Clinical Trial Readiness: Optimization of a Parallel Robot for Lower Limb Rehabilitation.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Bilateral Prefrontal Cortex Activation During Sensorimotor Tasks in People with Subacute Stroke - An Exploratory Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.NeuroRehabilitation · 2025Article
- Effect and optimal exercise prescription of robot-assisted gait training on lower extremity motor function in stroke patients: a network meta-analysis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Review
- Frontal and parietal cortices activation during walking is repeatable in older adults based on fNIRS.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Sex differences in patterns of white matter neuroplasticity after balance training in young adults.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Physiotherapy-assisted overground exoskeleton use: mixed methods feasibility study protocol quantifying the user experience, as well as functional, neural, and muscular outcomes in children with mobility impairments.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Wearable, high-density fNIRS and diffuse optical tomography technologies: a perspective.Neurophotonics · 2023Article
- Embodiment for Robotic Lower-Limb Exoskeletons: A Narrative Review.IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society · 2023Article
- Premotor and Posterior Parietal Cortex Activity is Increased for Slow, as well as Fast Walking Poststroke: An fNIRS Study.Neural plasticity · 2023Article
- Relation between Cortical Activation and Effort during Robot-Mediated Walking in Healthy People: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Neuroimaging Study (fNIRS).Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Phase-dependent Brain Activation of the Frontal and Parietal Regions During Walking After Stroke - An fNIRS Study.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Involvement of the Rostromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Human-Robot Interaction: fNIRS Evidence From a Robot-Assisted Motor Task.Frontiers in neurorobotics · 2022Article
- Data Processing in Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Motor Control Research.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Acupuncture WithFrontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundExperimental designs using surrogate gait-like movements, such as in functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cannot fully capture the cortical activation associated with overground gait. Overground gait in a robotic exoskeleton may be an ideal tool to generate controlled sensorimotor stimulation of gait conditions like 'active' (i.e. user moves with the device) and 'passive' (i.e. user is moved by the device) gait. To truly understand these neural mechanisms, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) would yield greater ecological validity. Thus, the aim of this experiment was to use fNIRS to delineate brain activation differences between 'Active' and 'Passive' overground gait in a robotic exoskeleton.
methodsFourteen healthy adults performed 10 walking trials in a robotic exoskeleton for Passive and Active conditions, with fNIRS over bilateral frontal and parietal lobes, and electromyography (EMG) over bilateral thigh muscles. Digitization of optode locations and individual T1 MRI scans were used to demarcate the brain regions fNIRS recorded from.
resultsIncreased oxyhemoglobin in the right frontal cortex was found for Passive compared with Active conditions. For deoxyhemoglobin, increased activation during Passive was found in the left frontal cortex and bilateral parietal cortices compared with Active; one channel in the left parietal cortex decreased during Active when compared with Passive. Normalized EMG mean amplitude was higher in the Active compared with Passive conditions for all four muscles (p ≤ 0.044), confirming participants produced the conditions asked of them.
conclusionsThe parietal cortex is active during passive robotic exoskeleton gait, a novel finding as research to date has not recorded posterior to the primary somatosensory cortex. Increased activation of the parietal cortex may be related to the planning of limb coordination while maintaining postural control. Future neurorehabilitation research could use fNIRS to examine whether exoskeletal gait training can increase gait-related brain activation with individuals unable to walk independently.
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Registered trials
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