Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation for Stroke Patients

Task specific training activities are types of activities that may be used in standard of care for stroke rehabilitation. Tasks will be completed in sitting or standing. As is usual in studies for upper limb hemiparesis, study participants will be picking up objects with their affected hands. They will work on grasp, grasp-lift of objects, release of objects, reaching and grasping, and reaching without grasping.

The Digitimer DS8R Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Neurostimulator will deliver transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation. The stimulus intensity used during the intervention will be determined based on individual maximum tolerance. We expect this current amplitude to be between 10mA and 100mA. Stimulation time will be standardized to a 30min duration during which the participant will perform task specific training tasks.

The Sham TESS intervention will utilize the same device and setup as the true TESS intervention. However, after turning on the stimulation and reaching the appropriate intensity, the stimulation will be ramped down and turned off for the remainder of the treatment session. The participant will be told that the stimulation was brought down to a sub-threshold level in order to maintain treatment group blinding.