Introduction: Stroke is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system and is a major cause of disability. Expected higher number of instances of stroke in the future is a challenge for physiotherapy, and therefore requires the introduction of innovative methods for rehabilitation of patients after stroke. Virtual rehabilitation is increasingly more often used in the process of r...

BACKGROUND Post-stroke hemiparesis is usually considered a unilateral motor control deficit of the paretic leg, while the non-paretic leg is assumed to compensate for paretic leg impairments and have minimal to no deficits. While the non-paretic leg electromyography (EMG) patterns are clearly altered, how the non-paretic leg acts to compensate remains to be established. METHODS Kinesiological...

The effects of fourth nerve palsy on the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) had not been systematically investigated. We used the magnetic scleral search coil technique to study the VOR in patients with unilateral fourth nerve palsy during sinusoidal head rotations in yaw, pitch and roll at different frequencies. In darkness, VOR gains are reduced during incyclotorsion, depression and abduction of t...

McCrea, Patrick H., Janice J. Eng, and Antony J. Hodgson. Saturated muscle activation contributes to compensatory reaching strategies after stroke. J Neurophysiol 94: 2999–3008, 2005. First published July 13, 2005; doi:10.1152/jn.00732.2004. The control and execution of movement could potentially be altered by the presence of stroke-induced weakness if muscles are incapable of generating suffic...

INTRODUCTION The ultimate goal of physiotherapy in stroke rehabilitation is focused towards physical independence and to restore their functional ability during activities of daily living (ADLs). Motor imagery (MI) is an active process during which a specific action is reproduced within working memory without any actual movements. MI training enhances motor learning, neural reorganization and c...

OBJECTIVE Modulation of the long-latency reflex (LLR) is important for sensorimotor control during interaction with different mechanical loads. Transcortical pathways usually contribute to LLR modulation, but the integrity of pathways projecting to the paretic and non-paretic arms of stroke survivors is compromised. We hypothesize that disruption of transcortical reflex pathways reduces the cap...

BACKGROUND Muscle mechanical work is likely affected by gait abnormalities in hemiparetic walking during the paretic pre-swing phase (i.e., double support phase preceding paretic toe-off). Previous experimental studies suggest that muscle work may be decreased in the paretic leg, but paretic work may have been underestimated since experimental approaches based on net joint moments do not accoun...

Post-stroke hemiparetic subjects walk with asymmetrical step lengths that are highly variable between subjects and may be indicative of the underlying impairments and compensatory mechanisms used. The goal of this study was to determine if post-stroke hemiparetic subjects grouped by step length asymmetry have similar abnormal walking biomechanics compared to non-impaired walkers. Kinematic and ...