KITE Research Rounds with Dr. Emilia Ambrosini

How to foster motor recovery with Functional Electrical Stimulation: two practical examples for upper and lower limb To foster motor recovery after stroke, rehabilitative interventions should make effective use of neuroplasticity, proposing high-intensity, repetitive, task-specific, interactive, and individualized training. In this talk, I will speak about the role of technologies, with a special focus on Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) in supporting therapists to provide such trainings, maximizing the involvement of the patients. After a first overview, two practical examples of interventions will be presented. First, I will speak about cycling induced by FES, reporting the results of a recent randomized controlled trial on stroke patients carried out by my research group. Then, I will introduce the concept of hybrid robotic systems, combing FES and robotic-assisted training. In this context, I will present the results recently achieved by the European project RETRAINER and I will discuss current challenges and future perspectives. E. Ambrosini is Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering since 2017. Her research is focused on the development and clinical translation of novel methods combing Functional Electrical Stimulation and robotic systems for rehabilitation and/or daily life assistance of neurological patients. She is co-authors of 47 papers in international journals indexed in Scopus (H-index 17, Jul 2021