Participate in a Study!
Ongoing studies
We are often recruiting participants for a range of studies involving wearable assistive devices. Most studies last a few hours long and involve performing a range of locomotor tasks, such as walking, with and without assistance. Please see below for any current ongoing studies.
RECRUITING! Effects of spinal cord stimulation on proprioceptive and motor performance
University of California, Irvine
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Rehabilitation and Augmentation Lab
Purpose: The long-term goal of our work is to understand how transcutaneous spinal cordstimulation (tSCS) may affect your ability to know where your body is in space (proprioception), specifically your ankles. We are then evaluating how changes in your proprioception related to your balance and walking ability.
Summary: In this experiment, participants are asked to come into the Rehabilitation and Augmentation Lab, located in the Engineering Gateway Building, at the University of California, Irvine. You will then be asked to do a series of proprioceptive and walking assessments. For the proprioceptive assessments, you will be asked to sense and move your ankles and/or fingers in a robotic device. For the walking assessments, you will be asked to walk on a treadmill. You may be asked to perform common clinical evaluations of lower extremity function. All tasks and evaluations will be performed with and without stimulation to identify changes in performance caused by tSCS.
Eligibility criteria:
- Between 18-65 years of age
- Can walk on a treadmill for at least 10 minutes continuously
- Can walk up to 120 minutes with breaks, over a 4 hour period
- Have not experienced musculoskeletal or neurological injuries in the past 6 months
- Are not still recovering from prior musculoskeletal or neurological injuries
- Can understand instructions in English
Benefits: You will not directly benefit from participation in this study. However, this study will help researchers learn more about how transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation affects
proprioception and motor function, and it is hoped that this information will help in the treatment of future patients with movement disability arising from conditions such as stroke.
Compensation: Participants will be compensated $15/hour for their participation.
If you are interested in participating, please send an email to:
Parastoo Ali Pour (alipourp@uci.edu)
RECRUITING! Walking with an Ankle Exoskeleton after Below-Knee Amputation
University of California,
Irvine
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Rehabilitation and Augmentation Lab
Purpose: The long-term goal of this study is to understand how people with unilateral transtibial amputation learn to use assistive devices, such as ankle exoskeletons. By studying how people adapt and move with these devices, we hope to find better ways to support their walking and improve rehabilitation training.
Summary: In this experiment, you will be asked to come into the Rehabilitation and Augmentation Lab, located in the Engineering Gateway Building, at the University of California, Irvine. You will be asked to walk on a treadmill while wearing an ankle exoskeleton on your intact leg. We will place sensors on your legs and body to record how you walk. You will also be asked to wear a mask over your head to measure your breathing. Experiments may last up to 4 hours, including up to 60 minutes of total walking with breaks.
Eligibility criteria:
- Between 18-65 years of age
- Must have a unilateral transtibial amputation
- Must be a K-level of K3 or higher
- Can walk on a treadmill
- Can walk for 10min continuously, and up to 60 minutes total (with breaks) over a 4-hour period
- Nave no neurological or cardiovascular conditions which may affect balance
- Can understand instructions in English
Benefits: Taking part in this study may or may not improve your walking and balance. While the research team hopes that training with the assistive devices improves your motor learning abilities, there is no guarantee of this occurring. This study will help researchers learn more about motor learning mechanisms that can be improved by wearable robotic devices for better gait training and rehabilitation. We hope that information from this study will lead to improved technologies for individuals with disabilities affecting locomotion. Improved robotic device technology may be developed as a result of this study, which might, at some point in the future, result in better commercial exoskeleton products available for you to purchase.
Compensation: Participants will be compensated $25/hour for their participation.
If you are interested in participating, please send an email to:
Sara Meschi (smeschi@uci.edu)
Location
University of California, Irvine
2123 Engineering Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697-3975
