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Sit-to-stand (STS) motion is an important daily activity and many post-stroke patients have difficulty in performing the STS motion. Post-stroke patients who can perform STS independently, still utilize four muscle synergies (synchronized muscle activation) as seen in healthy people. In addition, temporal muscle synergy features can reflect motor impairment of post-stroke patients. However, it has been unclear whether post-stroke patients improve their STS movements in short-term rehabilitation and which muscle synergy features can estimate this improvement. Here, we demonstrate that temporal features of muscle synergies which contribute to body extension and balance maintenance can estimate the effect of short-term rehabilitation based on machine learning methods. By analyzing muscle synergies of post-stroke patients (n = 33) before and with the intervention of physical therapists, we found that about half of the patients who were severely impaired, improved activation timing of muscle synergy to raise the hip with the intervention. Additionally, we identified the temporal features that can estimate whether severely impaired post-stroke patients improve. We conclude that temporal features of muscle synergies can estimate the motor recovery in short-term rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. This finding may lead to new rehabilitation strategies for post-stroke patients that focus on improving activation timing of different muscle synergies.

Stroke patients suffer from declined physical ability, and it is important to analyze rehabilitation intervention and clarify its effect on the motion of patients. In this study, the effect of intervention on the standing-up motion of stroke patients is investigated. First, the intervention timing of a physical therapist (PT) is analyzed quantitatively from the muscle activity of upper limbs during therapy. Next, the intervention effect is evaluated based on body kinematics and muscle synergy. In this study, twenty trials are conducted, in which the standing-up motion of hemiplegic patients (n=12) is measured with and without the intervention by a PT. The results show that PTs teach hemiplegic patients the timing of lifting their buttocks during standing-up motion. Furthermore, it has been found that this intervention could improve the standing-up motion, although stroke patients had inadequate muscle synergy structure. In particular, some patients had delayed activation of the synergy and they could only stood up after they moved their center of mass toward their feet. However, the intervention by PTs could induce earlier activation of the synergy. Moreover, the intervention could properly shorten the activation duration of muscle synergy for those who had unusually inappropriate longer activation of synergy. These results imply that disordered and inadequate muscle synergy structure can be improved by proper intervention, and this study contributes to the further development of new rehabilitation methodologies.