Reducing the Soleus Stretch Reflex With Conditioning: Exploring Game- and Impedance-Based Biofeedback.
Ronald C van 't Veld, Eline Flux, Alfred C Schouten and 3 others
PMID 36188848WHAT IT FOUND
Gamified biofeedback helped healthy adults reduce their stretch reflex within sessions, matching standard methods.
Impedance-based biofeedback failed to reduce the reflex. Neither method was tested in patients with spasticity, so clinical effects are unknown.
Key findings
01Gamified EMG biofeedback achieved within-session reflex reduction in all three participants, with effects ranging from 16% to 33%.
02Impedance-based biofeedback did not reduce reflex magnitude; all three participants showed an increase or no change.
03Participants using gamified biofeedback reported higher interest and perceived competence than those using standard bar-based feedback.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study used healthy volunteers, not patients with spasticity, so it provides no direct evidence for clinical treatment of spasticity. Only within-session (short-term) effects were measured; long-term learning requires 12-16 sessions and was not tested. The sample size was extremely small (three participants per group), making the results preliminary and unstable. The Impedance group used different perturbation parameters (amplitude, velocity) than the EMG groups, confounding the comparison of biofeedback types.
Declared interests
Funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The authors declared no commercial or financial conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this proves gamification treats spasticity. The study was done on healthy people to test if the feedback method works, not if it helps patients.