Abstract
The microcomputer-based, multi-purpose biofeedback (BF) sytem was developed for several clinical applications. The main components of system were as follows : the microcomputer, (Apple II), a color CRT display, a synthesizer, an anlog-to-digital converter with 12 channel analog multiplexer. To fascilitate data processing, a Z80 CPU card with the disk operating system (CP/M) was also installed. First, 2-channel EMG BF training was introduced to motor disturbance caused by cervical spinal cord injury. Two EMG activities obtained from an upper limb of a subject were sampled by the system, then fedback as graphic patterns on a CRT or as auditory stimuli via a synthesizer. This multiple BF procedure with integrated feedback information was effective for reducing the muscle co-contraction in such a subject and the appropriate motor pattern tended to be established easily. Second, potentiometers were attached one each to two weight scales to which subject's weight was allocated. Analog outputs from the potentiometers were fed to the BF system. It was shown that reliable data to evaluate the voluntary control of standing posture in cerebral palsied children, could be obtained with the simple measuring devices and the system. It was discussed that, as shown in the second example described above, the quantitative data acquisition could be realized only with the addition of simple sensors or transducers. Furthermore, thtypical BF training process in clinical applications was summarized in terms of softwares of this system. The process consist of planning, execution, and evaluation of BF training, all of which are controlled and optimized at the software level. It was exemplified well in the multiple EMG BF training in the present report. It was suggested that further quantitative data analysis with this BF system is necessary to reveal the critical role of feedback information for more effective application of BF procedures to clinical situation.
