{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp04_retrieval_first_paired20_20260802","cell_id":"negative_space_design__neuroscience","arm":"RETRIEVAL_FIRST","candidate_id":"negative_space_design__neuroscience__H1__v0","hypothesis_id":"H1","version":0,"title":"Protected rest gaps in post-stroke sensory training","problem":"Dense, uninterrupted blocks of therapist-guided post-stroke somatosensory discrimination practice may allow stimulation in a new block to interfere with retention of learning from the preceding block.","actors":["Stroke survivors receiving somatosensory rehabilitation","Therapists delivering sensory-discrimination training","Researchers assigning interval conditions and analyzing outcomes","Outcome assessors blinded to interval condition"],"observable_state":"At each transition between matched sensory-retraining blocks, the preceding block has a recorded difficulty level and immediate discrimination score, while the participant proceeds either into continued stimulation or into an interval not explicitly protected from sensory or cognitive filler. The observable failure pattern is similar immediate performance across conditions but poorer discrimination for the preceding block's trained distinctions after 24 hours when the transition contains active filler rather than a stimulus-free gap.","consequence":"If successive stimulation interferes with consolidation, learning expressed during a block may not persist to the next day, reducing the retained benefit of a fixed number of training trials.","affected_objective":"Improve 24-hour retention of trained somatosensory discriminations without adding training trials or reducing necessary clinical and safety information.","intervention":"At eligible trial-block transitions, insert an explicitly cued, stimulus-free interval whose duration is selected from a therapist-approved range according to the preceding block's predefined difficulty category. Tell the participant that the quiet interval is deliberate and when training will resume. Compare it with an equal-duration active-filler interval while holding training content, trial count, total interval time, therapist contact, and assessment timing constant. Preserve an immediately available stop signal, required monitoring, accessibility support, and therapist discretion to interrupt the interval.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Omission Candidate","domain_realization":"Sensory and cognitive filler normally placed between retraining blocks is the candidate for temporary omission."},{"archetype_element":"Protected Empty Space","domain_realization":"A bounded, explicitly cued interval contains no retraining stimulus or active filler and is protected from casual conversation or added tasks."},{"archetype_element":"Positive Form Relationship","domain_realization":"The empty interval is tied specifically to the trained sensory distinctions in the immediately preceding block and is intended to let that block settle before new stimulation begins."},{"archetype_element":"Attention Competition Map","domain_realization":"The protocol identifies post-block retraining stimuli, conversation, and filler tasks as possible competitors while exempting monitoring, communication access, and safety cues."},{"archetype_element":"Absence Boundary","domain_realization":"The interval has a defined start cue, therapist-approved duration, end cue, and resumption rule."},{"archetype_element":"Meaning-of-Absence Check","domain_realization":"Participants are told that the interval is planned quiet time rather than equipment failure, abandonment, or completion of therapy."},{"archetype_element":"Reintroduction Trigger","domain_realization":"Training resumes when the assigned duration ends, or sooner if the participant requests help or the therapist detects discomfort or clinical need."},{"archetype_element":"Accessibility and Recoverability Guardrail","domain_realization":"Communication aids, positioning support, monitoring, the stop signal, and therapist access remain available; omitted filler can be restored immediately."},{"archetype_element":"Clarity or Effect Test","domain_realization":"Immediate discrimination and blinded 24-hour retention are measured separately to test the nominated delayed-retention pattern."},{"archetype_element":"Context Preservation Frame","domain_realization":"Both conditions retain identical trial content, dose, transition duration, instructions about later testing, and clinically required support."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"blank_or_rest_frame","role":"Implements a deliberate quiet segment at a genuine block boundary, minimally cues its purpose, and defines when sensory training returns.","counterfactual_removal":"Without the protected rest frame, the transition is filled or left ambiguous, so the intervention no longer tests whether deliberate stimulus absence between blocks changes delayed retention."},{"mechanism_slug":"pause_in_speech","role":"Supplies the narrower pacing logic: the therapist withholds nonessential verbal input during the interval while retaining the floor, monitoring the participant, and resuming at a defined point.","counterfactual_removal":"If therapist speech and prompting continue throughout the nominal gap, the interval is not stimulus-free and cannot isolate the proposed protected-quiet mechanism."}],"causal_chain":["A difficult sensory-discrimination block produces learning that may remain vulnerable at the block transition.","The protocol converts the transition into a clearly bounded and interpretable period of stimulus absence.","Withholding new retraining stimuli and active filler reduces candidate competition during that interval.","If such competition materially impairs consolidation, more of the preceding block's learning remains available after 24 hours.","Because trial dose and interval duration are matched, a retention difference can be attributed more narrowly to interval content rather than added practice or added time.","Unchanged immediate performance alongside improved delayed retention would fit the proposed consolidation account; immediate differences would require a different interpretation."],"baseline":"The primary comparator is an equal-duration active-filler interval inserted at the same block transitions, with duration yoked to the corresponding difficulty-selected stimulus-free interval. Training trials, block difficulty, therapist contact, total elapsed time, immediate testing, and 24-hour testing are otherwise matched. A fixed scheduled break may be documented descriptively as current practice but is not the primary contrast.","nearest_rivals":["Performance-adaptive rehabilitation wait times (US20140287389A1): already links prior performance to therapist-bounded waits, but in motion-exercise delivery rather than a post-stroke sensory-discrimination consolidation test.","SENSUPP block-structured sensory relearning: already combines therapist-guided post-stroke sensory discrimination, graded difficulty, repeated blocks, and a scheduled break, but not difficulty-adaptive stimulus-free gaps at each transition tested against active filler.","Brief waking-rest consolidation during interleaved motor practice: provides a close mechanistic analogue for rest-related offline gains, but in healthy motor-sequence learning rather than post-stroke somatosensory rehabilitation with the nominated comparator and endpoint.","Distributed and individually paced stroke rehabilitation: treats pacing, fatigue, tolerance, and variable schedules as legitimate clinical variables, but does not specify consolidation-oriented empty intervals in sensory retraining.","A nonspecific fatigue or arousal account: quiet gaps could improve next-day performance by reducing fatigue or stress rather than by protecting consolidation of the preceding block."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"In therapist-guided post-stroke somatosensory discrimination training, explicitly cued stimulus-free gaps whose duration is determined by preceding-block difficulty will improve 24-hour retention over equal-duration active filler without changing immediate performance.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The treating therapist retains authority over clinical suitability, interruption, and resumption; the research protocol and any participant enrollment require the responsible ethics and institutional approvals, informed consent, and investigator oversight.","authorized_first_step":"Develop and obtain review for a small, noninvasive feasibility protocol that randomizes eligible block transitions to cued stimulus-free gaps or time-matched active filler and uses blinded immediate and 24-hour discrimination assessments; begin enrollment only after required approvals and consent.","excluded_actions":["Withholding clinically necessary monitoring, communication, positioning, pain management, or safety information","Using silence to override refusal, pressure participation, or prevent questions","Changing medication, stimulation, standard rehabilitation dose, or the treating clinician's care plan","Applying the protocol during urgent care, acute deterioration, severe distress, or when the therapist judges quiet intervals unsuitable","Interpreting a blank interval as permission to leave the participant unattended","Claiming clinical efficacy or worldwide novelty from a feasibility study"],"halt_rollback":"Stop the interval immediately for a participant request, distress, fatigue beyond the therapist's limit, new symptoms, loss of communication access, or any safety concern. Restore ordinary therapist interaction and standard transition practice, document the event, and withdraw the participant or protocol condition when required without affecting usual care."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The closest prior art already separates most components: US20140287389A1 discloses performance-related rehabilitation wait-time adaptation; SENSUPP uses graded, block-structured post-stroke sensory relearning with a scheduled break; and healthy-participant research links brief waking rest to offline motor gains. This substantial collision means the proposal cannot claim adaptive rehabilitation rest, sensory-training breaks, or rest-supported consolidation individually as novel, and the healthy motor result may not generalize to post-stroke sensory discrimination.","problem_falsifier":"The problem account is undermined if transition content does not predict later loss after controlling for trained difficulty and dose, if retained discrimination is no worse after active filler, or if observed failures are instead explained by measurement unreliability, fatigue, comprehension, or inadequate initial learning rather than interference between blocks.","intervention_falsifier":"The remaining contrastive claim is falsified by an adequately powered comparison showing no 24-hour retention advantage for the difficulty-adaptive stimulus-free gaps over equal-duration active filler. Its consolidation interpretation is also contradicted if any apparent delayed advantage is explained by unequal dose, interval duration, therapist contact, baseline difficulty, fatigue, expectancy, or an immediate-performance difference.","risks":["Quiet may be experienced as abandonment, disapproval, confusion, or equipment failure.","Difficulty-linked duration may reveal condition expectations or confound rest with baseline task difficulty.","Active filler may itself cause fatigue, making it an unfair or mechanistically ambiguous comparator.","Longer gaps may reduce engagement or usable therapy time without improving retention.","Stroke-related communication, neglect, cognitive, sensory, or fatigue differences may make a single cueing procedure inaccessible.","Repeated testing may create practice effects or fail to distinguish trained-item memory from general discrimination improvement.","A small feasibility sample may estimate procedures but cannot support an efficacy claim."]},"next_evidence_step":"Run one preregistered, bounded feasibility study in a single therapist-guided sensory-retraining setting after required approvals: use matched sensory blocks, predefined difficulty categories and therapist-approved interval bounds, randomized cued stimulus-free versus duration-yoked active-filler transitions, immediate testing, and blinded 24-hour retention testing. Record adherence, adverse or confusing interval experiences, fatigue, therapist interruptions, and assessor masking. Advance to an efficacy study only if the conditions remain meaningfully distinct, retention measurement is feasible, and no safety or disengagement signal warrants rollback.","prior_art_status":"SEARCHED_BOUNDED","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Expanded the terse hypothesis into a complete actor-state-intervention-outcome specification.","Kept the causal lever at difficulty-linked, explicitly cued stimulus-free block transitions.","Narrowed the claim to the exact residual combination left after substantial prior-art collision.","Added authority boundaries, safety exclusions, rollback conditions, falsifiers, and a bounded first evidence step."],"conceptual_changes":["Separated the proposed consolidation account from rival fatigue, arousal, expectancy, and immediate-performance explanations.","Defined deliberate absence as a bounded transition state related to the preceding sensory block rather than as generic rest."],"operational_changes":["Specified a duration-yoked active-filler comparator and controls for trial dose, elapsed time, therapist contact, and assessment timing.","Added explicit cues, resumption triggers, therapist-approved duration bounds, blinded 24-hour assessment, and feasibility measurements."],"evidence_changes":["Integrated the supplied patent, waking-rest study, SENSUPP intervention, stroke guidance, clinical-practice survey, and systematic review without adding external sources.","Recorded substantial prior-art collision and limited the evidence claim to a bounded search rather than worldwide novelty."],"claim_changes":["Retained verbatim the independent prior-art record's remaining contrastive claim.","Excluded novelty claims for adaptive rehabilitation waits, scheduled sensory-retraining breaks, and waking-rest consolidation considered separately."]}}