Motor Lateralization Provides a Foundation for Predicting and Treating Non-paretic Arm Motor Deficits in Stroke.

We present a pilot study focused on improving the speed and coordination of ipsilesional arm function in a convenience sample of three stroke patients with severe contralesional impairment. Over a three-week period, patients received a total of nine 1.5 h sessions of training that included intense practice of virtual reality and real-life tasks. Our results indicated substantial improvements in ipsilesional arm movement kinematics, functional performance, and that these improvements carried over to improve functional independence. In addition, the contralesional arm improved in our measure of contralesional impairment, which was likely due to improved participation in activities of daily living. We discuss of our findings for physical rehabilitation. PMID: 28035570 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - Category: Research Tags: Adv Exp Med Biol Source Type: research