Project description
Improving motor rehabilitation through joint-action therapy
While physical rehabilitation can significantly improve the quality of life for impaired individuals, many programmes fail because they neglect the social aspects of movement. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MATCH project will explore interactive therapy based on joint actions for motor rehabilitation. The study relies on a specific physical task that individuals or pairs can perform. The conceptual framework will be tested in a solo-action experiment followed by a joint-action experiment. These experiments will analyse how participants coordinate their movements and whether they attempt to match each other’s complex motor behaviour. Finally, the project will assess the interactive therapy by determining if it leads to lasting improvements in an individual’s motor behaviour.
Objective
Rehabilitation training can enhance the quality of life for people with motor impairments, yet many training programs remain limited in their effectiveness because they overlook the social dimension of human movement. MATCH addresses this problem by studying the potential of an interactive, joint action-based therapy for motor rehabilitation. Central to the project is the design of an innovative ball-on-board paradigm: an experimental task in which participants learn to control a ball rolling on a hand-held board. The task can be performed individually or in dyads, making it possible to study motor learning in both solo and joint action contexts. Using healthy participants, the empirical work will be divided in three phases that each correspond to a distinct research objective. The first phase establishes a conceptual framework for motor learning that is tailored to the demands of rehabilitation practice. Combining expertise of the host and myself, concepts from complexity science are integrated with motor learning theory and the framework will be empirically validated through a solo action experiment. In the second phase, this framework is applied to design an interactive training therapy. A joint action experiment will examine how interacting participants coordinate their movements with one another, with the hypothesis that dyad members will match the complexity of their motor behaviour to each other during the interaction. The third and final phase evaluates the effectiveness of the interactive therapy by testing to what extent a joint action training leads to persistent enhancements in the complexity of an individual’s motor behaviour. This will be investigated in a solo action experiment. Together, MATCH lays the groundwork for a joint action therapy by pioneering the integration of complexity science with movement science. As such, the proposed research is fundamental to the future recovery of patients with stroke, Parkinson’s disease or spinal cord injury.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine physiotherapy
- medical and health sciences basic medicine neurology stroke
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
5037 AB Tilburg
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.