Psychophysiological Integration of Humans and Machines for Rehabilitation

Abstract

In conventional man–machine interfaces for motor rehabilitation, the primary goal is to control the biomechanical interaction between the human and the machine or environment. However, integrating the human into the loop can be considered not only from a biomechanical view, but also with regard to physiological and psychological aspects. Such psychophysiological integration involves recording and controlling the patient’s physiological responses so that the patient receives appropriate stimuli and is challenged in a moderate but engaging way without causing undue stress or harm. In this chapter, we present examples first of physiological integration (without taking psychological aspects into account) and then of full psychophysiological integration where the patient’s cognitive workload is automatically estimated from physiological data. Examples are given both for gait rehabilitation and arm rehabilitation.