An overreliance on the less-affected limb for functional tasks at the expense of the paretic limb and in spite of recovered capacity is an often-observed phenomenon in survivors of hemispheric stroke. The difference between capacity for use and actual spontaneous use is referred to as arm nonuse. Obtaining an ecologically valid evaluation of arm nonuse is challenging because it requires the observation of spontaneous arm choice for different tasks, which can easily be influenced by instructions, presumed expectations, and awareness that one is being tested. To better quantify arm nonuse, we developed the bimanual arm reaching test with a robot (BARTR) for quantitatively assessing arm nonuse in chronic stroke survivors. The BARTR is an instrument that uses a robot arm as a means of remote and unbiased data collection of nuanced spatial data for clinical evaluations of arm nonuse. This approach shows promise for determining the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce paretic arm nonuse and enhance functional recovery after stroke. We show that the BARTR satisfies the criteria of an appropriate metric for neurorehabilitative contexts: It is valid, reliable, and simple to use.

中文翻译：

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使用机器人手臂描述中风后个体手臂不使用工作空间的指标

半球中风幸存者中经常观察到的一种现象是，尽管功能已恢复，但过度依赖受影响较小的肢体来完成功能任务，从而牺牲了瘫痪肢体。使用能力与实际自发使用之间的差异称为手臂不使用。对手臂不使用进行生态有效的评估是具有挑战性的，因为它需要观察不同任务的自发手臂选择，而这很容易受到指示、假定期望和对正在接受测试的意识的影响。为了更好地量化手臂不使用情况，我们开发了机器人双手伸臂测试 (BARTR)，用于定量评估慢性中风幸存者的手臂不使用情况。BARTR 是一种使用机器人手臂作为远程和公正数据收集细致空间数据的手段的仪器，用于对手臂不使用的临床评估。这种方法有望确定旨在减少瘫痪手臂不使用并增强中风后功能恢复的干预措施的有效性。我们证明 BARTR 满足神经康复环境的适当指标的标准：它有效、可靠且易于使用。