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About

Atsuko Nishimoto is a leading researcher at the intersection of rehabilitation medicine and robotics, with a primary focus on the quantitative assessment of upper limb function following neurological injury. Her major contributions center on validating robotic measures as objective tools for evaluating motor control and proprioception in stroke survivors. Notably, her highly cited 2015 work (79 citations) established the clinical usefulness of robotic reaching tasks using the KINARM Exoskeleton, demonstrating their ability to reveal underlying motor control deficits in hemiparetic patients. She further advanced the field by examining the reliability of the thumb localizing test against robotic proprioception measures (2020, 23 citations), bridging traditional clinical assessments with cutting-edge technology. In a uniquely personal contribution, Nishimoto authored a case study (2016) drawing on her dual perspective as both an occupational therapist and a patient recovering from a proximal humeral fracture, offering rare insight into the patient experience of robotic rehabilitation. Her work has been instrumental in moving robotic assessment from the lab to clinical practice, providing clinicians with precise, quantitative tools to complement traditional evaluations and ultimately improve rehabilitation outcomes for individuals with motor impairments.