Pathological tremor is defined as a rapid and rhythmic movement of a body part, involuntarily shown in individuals with neurological disorders (1). These patients revealed resting, action, and postural tremor with 4-12 Hz of oscillations interfering with activities of daily living. Thus, minimizing involuntary tremulous movements is an important goal for therapists and rehabilitation researchers. . . .

Stroke is a primary source of disability and mortality globally. The incidence of stroke is dramatically increasing in both developed and developing countries and the age at which those that are afflicted is becoming younger. Studies have shown that 33 million individuals suffer a stroke on an annual basis and approximately half will experience problems performing their activities of daily living (ADL). Practical solutions with a focus on neurorehabilitation are vital. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES), and repetitive transcranial magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)maybe two advantageous treatments for reducing disability post-stroke. We propose that rTMS would activate cortical regions especially areas related to the primary motor cortex and FES would activate peripheral nerves that can lead to improvements in motor function of both the upper and lower limbs in patients post-stroke. It is proposing that this concurrent use of rTMS and FES will be of benefit in improving the motor function of this population.

Introduction: Efficient gait control using Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is an open research problem. In this research, a new intermittent controller has been designed to control the human shank movement dynamics during gait. Methods: In this approach, first, the three-dimensional phase space was constructed using the human shank movement data recorded from the healthy subjects. Then, three iterated sine-circle maps were extracted in the mentioned phase space. The three identified onedimensional maps contained the essential information about the shank movement dynamics during a gait cycle. Next, an intermittent fuzzy controller was designed to control the shank angle. According to the adopted intermittent control strategy, the fuzzy controller is activated whenever the shank angle is far enough from the specific. The specific points are described using the identified iterated maps in the constructed phase space. In this manner, the designed controller is activated during a short-time fraction of the gait cycle time. Results: The designed intermittent controller was evaluated through some simulation studies on a two-joint musculoskeletal model. The obtained results suggested that the pattern of the obtained hip and knee joint trajectories, the outputs of the musculoskeletal model, were acceptably similar to the joints’ trajectories pattern of healthy subjects. Conclusion: The intriguing similarity was observed between the dynamics of the recorded human data and those of the controlled musculoskeletal model. It supports the acceptable performance of the proposed control strategy.

Background: Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is the most commonly used system for restoring functions after spinal cord injury (SCI). Objective: In this study we investigated feedback PID and feedforward-feedback P-PID controllers for regulating the elbow joint angle. Methods: The controllers were tuned based on a nonlinear muculoskeletal model containing two links, one joint with one degree of freedom and two muscles in the sagittal plane that was simulated in MATLAB using Sim Mechanics and Simulink toolboxes. The first tune of the PID and P-PID controllers was done by trial and error. Then, the coefficients were optimized by genetic algorithm (GA). For checking the robustness of the controllers, we compared the amount of rise time, settling time, maximum overshoot and steady state error under three conditions: the first was when the initial angle of the joint was fixed and only the desired angles changed; the second was with a fixed step as input and various initial angles; and the last condition was with different maximum forces for muscle. Results: Genetic controllers had better performance than the trial and error tuned controllers. The amounts of settling time were not so different for the controllers in condition 1 but had more variations in condition 2 and had really better results in genetic P-PID in condition 3. The overshoot was pretty less in PIDs than in P-PIDs and the steady state error was almost zero for all of the controllers. Conclusion: Genetic controllers had a better performance than the trial and error tuned controllers. The rise time was much less in P-PIDs than in PIDs.

Background: Urinary Stress Incontinence (SUI) is the most common type of urinary incontinence among the young and middle-aged women, which occurs due to weak pelvic floor muscles and urethral sphincter in addition to many other factors. The objective of the research was to assess the effect of biofeedback versus Functional Electrical Stimulation in the treatment of SUI. Methods: In this study, 30 married women affected by SUI were selected randomly. The participants were divided into two equal groups and treated during 15 weeks with 1 session per week. The changes in SUI severity and their satisfaction were assessed by ICIQ-SF Questionnaire, and the rate of urine leakage was measured by applying Pad Test. Data were recorded and analyzed using SPSS Version 19 software. Specifically, Paired t-test, Independent t-test, and Mann-Whitney test were utilized. Results: The results revealed that the mean quantity of urinary leakage, maximal PFM force, and ICIQ Score did not have significant differences in both groups (P>0. 05). However, there was a significant difference between biofeedback and FES group post-treatment regarding the quantity of urinary leakage (P<0. 05). Patients in the biofeedback group expressed more satisfaction and improvement than those in the FES group. Conclusion: Both treatment methods were effective in the treatment of SUI. However, biofeedback proved to be superior in reducing the quantity of urinary leakage. Further, because of a higher degree of patients’ subjective satisfaction and improvement with biofeedback, this method of treatment is recommended.

Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) is rapidly expanding as a comprehensive therapeutic tool in geriatric rehabilitation, offering diverse applications beyond traditional muscle strengthening. This article examines various applications and effectiveness of NMES in the elderly across multiple Functional domains. Recent evidence suggests that NMES can aid in enhancing brain plasticity, increasing muscle mass and strength, improving balance and postural control, and facilitating Functional recovery in the elderly. Studies have shown that this form of Stimulation can elevate serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is considered an indicator of potential neuroprotective effects. In the domain of muscle performance, promising results have been observed with NMES in preventing age-related muscle atrophy and improving strength, particularly when regular exercise may be challenging. Furthermore, significant improvements in balance and postural control have been observed in the elderly, which are enhanced when combined with voluntary muscle contractions. NMES has also demonstrated its efficacy in specific clinical conditions common among the elderly, such as post-stroke rehabilitation, dysphagia, and muscle weakness due to severe illness. Recent technological advancements, including wearable devices and brain-controlled systems, have broadened the scope of this intervention. However, variability in protocols, Stimulation parameters, and outcome measures across different studies presents challenges for establishing standardized treatment guidelines. This article analyzes the current evidence regarding the multifaceted applications of NMES in geriatric rehabilitation and discusses its established benefits and emerging applications. Understanding these varied applications and their underlying mechanisms is critical for healthcare providers to optimize the implementation of NMES in elderly rehabilitation programs.

Despite the interesting innovation proposed in the paper, "Synergy-based Functional Electrical Stimulation for poststroke rehabilitation of upper-limb motor functions, " concerning the design of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) profile, we are skeptical regarding the genuine effectiveness of the applied rehabilitation strategy. In this note, we argue that applying the rehabilitation method proposed in the above-noted work cannot pave the way for eliciting a motor learning process. Consequently, the proposed method cannot be regarded as a FES-based rehabilitation approach for poststroke rehabilitation of upper-limb motor functions.