Digitalized transcranial electrical stimulation: A consensus statement

Objective: Although relatively costly and non-scalable, non-invasive neuromodulation interventions are treatment alternatives for neuropsychiatric disorders. The recent developments of highly-deployable transcranial electric stimulation (tES) systems, combined with mobile-Health technologies, could be incorporated in digital trials to overcome methodological barriers and increase equity of access. The study aims are to discuss the implementation of tES digital trials by performing a systematic scoping review and strategic process mapping, evaluate methodological aspects of tES digital trial designs, and provide Delphi-based recommendations for implementing digital trials using tES. Methods: We convened 61 highly-productive specialists and contacted 8 tES companies to assess 71 issues related to tES digitalization readiness, and processes, barriers, advantages, and opportunities for implementing tES digital trials. Delphi-based recommendations (>60% agreement) were provided. Results: The main strengths/opportunities of tES were: (i) non-pharmacological nature (92% of agreement), safety of these techniques (80%), affordability (88%), and potential scalability (78%). As for weaknesses/threats, we listed insufficient supervision (76%) and unclear regulatory status (69%). Many issues related to methodological biases did not reach consensus. Device appraisal showed moderate digitalization readiness, with high safety and potential for trial implementation, but low connectivity. Conclusions: Panelists recognized the potential of tES for scalability, generalizability, and leverage of digital trials processes; with no consensus about aspects regarding methodological biases. Significance: We further propose and discuss a conceptual framework for exploiting shared aspects between mobile-Health tES technologies with digital trials methodology to drive future efforts for digitizing tES trials

Physical Human-Robot Interaction through a Jointly-held Object based on Kinesthetic Perception

This paper deals with the problem of human-robot cooperative object manipulation for cases where the grasp position of the operator can change during task execution similar to human-human collaborative scenarios. In state of the art algorithms for cooperative object handling, a constant grasping position is considered for the operator. In order to accommodate the changes of the human grasping point in the control design, we do not depend on sensors on the operator\u27s hand or on the object but we employ estimates obtained through a recursive least-squares estimator. The estimation algorithm uses only the measured wrenches obtained by a force/torque sensor located at the end-effector of the manipulator. We also propose a switching strategy for a damping controller based on the online estimates. Simulation results are provided in order to demonstrate the proposed method

Human grasp position estimation for human–robot cooperative object manipulation

This paper addresses the problem of human grasp position estimation in a physical human–robot object handling scenario. The problem is formulated as a linear regression by considering the human grasp position and their exerted torque as unknown parameters. We propose a modified least-squares algorithm to estimate the parameters by evaluating the quality of the estimates based on the assumption that the parameters should remain constant for a period of time. The solution is model-agnostic in terms of the human force/torque model – requiring only force/torque measurements on the robot side and proprioception – and is model-based in terms of the object model. The proposed grasp position estimation method is compared statistically with a conventional contact point estimation method using the collected experimental data. Moreover, the performance of the developed method is evaluated through various scenarios of physical human–robot interaction

The effects of sex hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycle on cortical excitability and manual dexterity (a pilot study)

To investigate whether hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle affect corticospinal excitability, intracortical inhibition (ICI) or facilitation (ICF) in primary motor cortex, and also whether the hormonal fluctuations have any effect on manual dexterity in neurologically intact women.Twenty volunteers (10 Female, 10 Male) were included in this study. The levels of progesterone and estradiol were measured from saliva during the women's menstrual follicular, ovulation and mid-luteal phases. Motor evoked potentials were recorded from the right first dorsal interosseous muscle. Single and paired-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) were delivered in a block of 20 stimuli. With paired-pulse technique, 3ms and 10ms inter-stimulus intervals were used to assess ICI and ICF, respectively. The Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) was completed in each session before the TMS assessments. Male participants were tested at similar time intervals as female participants.Mixed design ANOVA revealed that GPT score in female participants was significantly lower at the mid-luteal phase compared to the ovulation phase (p = 0.017). However, it was not correlated with progesterone or estrogen fluctuations during the menstrual cycle. The results also showed that the effect of phase, sex and the interaction of phase by sex for resting motor threshold, ICI or ICF were not significant (p > 0.05).Manual dexterity performance fluctuates during the menstrual cycle in neurologically intact women, which might be due to the balance of the neuromodulatory effects of P4 and E2 in the motor cortex during different phases