A Magnetic Resonance Compatible Stepper (MARCOS) for FMRI Investigation of Gait

Christoph Hollnagel¹, Ningbo Yu¹, Armin Blickenstorfer^1,2, Peter Wolf¹, Volker Dietz³, Spyros Kollias², Robert Riener¹

Rehabilitative training of spinal cord injured patients is only successful, if patients are not immobile over a long time. An immobile phase may result in degradation of nerve cells. Mechanism leading to degradation of nerve cells and effects of rehabilitative training are not well understood but knowledge about this issue is desired to evaluate and improve rehabilitative training. Thus, we developed a magnetic resonance compatible stepper (MARCOS) to perform gait like movements while acquiring brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI. This abstract describes the device and its influence to the magnetic fields of the scanner.