Does FES Contribute to Cognitive Motor Task Discrimination?: An fNIRS study

Abstract

FES, widely used in clinical rehabilitation, is a kind of involuntary motion stimulator to generate passive motion by stimulating the target muscles. However, it is not yet clear how FES affects cognitive performance of motor task. This study aims to investigate cerebral cortex activation of effect of minimal FES during voluntary cognitive motor task discrimination by using fNIRS. Seven healthy right-handed persons participated in the experiment. Participants voluntarily perform the flexion/extension of the right hand, alternately grasping DigiFlex, which have five different grip forces. At the same time, they answer the strength of DigiFlex's power, which is provided randomly each time, by a scale of 1 to 5. During the test, fNIRS measures the cerebral hemodynamics of all cortical areas and also is scored the answer rate. At this point, FES stimulates target muscles with a minimum current for the subject to grasp DigiFlex of the smallest intensity of 0.34kgf. The effect of cognitive motor task discrimination by a minimal FES was overall increased the correct answer rate, but the cortical motor facilitation was decreased. These conflicting results require more subjects' participation in the experiment and more rigorous statistical analysis in the future. Nevertheless, exploring the FES' contribution to cognitive motor task discrimination from the perspective of cortical facilitation could be a novel and interesting approach. © 2021 IEEE.