Título:
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The visual amplification of goal-oriented movements counteracts acquired non-use in hemiparetic stroke patients.
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Autor/a:
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Rubio Ballester, Belén; Nirme, Jens; Duarte Oller, Esther; Cuxart, Ampar; Rodriguez, Susana; Verschure, Paul F. M. J.; Duff, Armin
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Abstract:
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BACKGROUND: Stroke-induced impairments result from both primary and secondary causes, i.e. damage to the brain and the acquired non-use of the impaired limbs. Indeed, stroke patients often under-utilize their paretic limb despite sufficient residual motor function. We hypothesize that acquired non-use can be overcome by reinforcement-based training strategies. METHODS: Hemiparetic stroke patients (n = 20, 11 males, 9 right-sided hemiparesis) were asked to reach targets appearing in either the real world or in a virtual environment. Sessions were divided into 3 phases: baseline, intervention and washout. During the intervention the movement of the virtual representation of the patients' paretic limb was amplified towards the target. RESULTS: We found that the probability of using the paretic limb during washout was significantly higher in comparison to baseline. Patients showed generalization of these results by displaying a more substantial workspace in real world task. These gains correlated with changes in effector selection patterns. CONCLUSIONS: The amplification of the movement of the paretic limb in a virtual environment promotes the use of the paretic limb in stroke patients. Our findings indicate that reinforcement-based therapies may be an effective approach for counteracting learned non-use and may modulate motor performance in the real world. |
Materia(s):
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-Infart cerebral |
Derechos:
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© 2015 Rubio Ballester et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:///ncreativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Tipo de documento:
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Artículo Artículo - Versión publicada |
Editor:
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Biomed central
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