The SonicHand Protocol for Rehabilitation of Hand Motor Function: A Validation and Feasibility Study

Area of Science:

• Neurorehabilitation
• Biomedical Engineering
• Music Therapy

Background:

• Musical sonification therapy offers a novel approach to enhance conventional rehabilitation.
• It aims to increase therapy intensity and patient engagement through motivating exercises.
• The SonicHand protocol is a new method for hand function training and assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and validity of the SonicHand protocol for hand function rehabilitation.
• To assess the protocol's ability to discriminate between healthy subjects and stroke patients.
• To determine the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the SonicHand assessment.

Main Methods:

• The study included 15 healthy individuals and 15 stroke patients.
• Stroke patients underwent a training protocol involving exercises synchronized with music sequences.
• Hand motor performance was assessed using 15 quantitative parameters derived from hand position data.

Main Results:

• The SonicHand training protocol was found to be feasible, with patients understanding and executing tasks.
• The assessment protocol demonstrated good to excellent discrimination between groups.
• Moderate-to-excellent reliability and moderate-to-strong correlations with clinical scales (FM, FIM, BBT) were observed.

Conclusions:

• The SonicHand protocol is a feasible and valid tool for hand function rehabilitation.
• The assessment demonstrates strong discriminative ability, reliability, and concurrent validity.
• This enables personalized and motivating rehabilitation programs using sonification for improved hand function.