Scoring the severity of joint involvement in the x-rays of hands of patients with rheumatoid arthritis showed significantly greater joint destruction in the dominant hand. The difference was seen in all the joints, and especially in the wrists, but with the exception of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the thumb. The grip strength was not, however, different in the 2 hands.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Mirror movements (MM) are involuntary synchronous movements of one limb during voluntary unilateral movements of the opposite limb. We measured MM in stroke and control subjects and evaluated whether MM after stroke are related to motor function. METHODS Twenty-three patients and 16 control subjects were studied. A computerized dynamometer was used during two squeezing ...

Much debate in the handedness literature has centred on the relative merits of questionnaire-based measures assessing hand preference versus simple movement tasks such as peg moving or finger tapping, assessing hand performance. A third paradigm has grown in popularity, which assesses choices by participants when either hand could be used to execute movements. These newer measures may be useful...

INTRODUCTION This study assessed the ability of gloves to simulate rheumatoid arthritis of the hand. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Assessments were made in the dominant hand of 24 healthy volunteers with no glove, glove A (simulating stiffness only) and glove B (simulating stiffness and pain). Results were compared to data held on 23 rheumatoid arthritis patients. Sollerman score was used as a standar...

This study aimed to examine the effects of repeated training on the controlled force exertion (CFE) test and retention in dominant and nondominant hands. The subjects were 10 young males (mean age, 21.8 ± 1.4 years). The CFE test was used as the repeated training task and performed 5 days per week over 3 weeks (a total of 15 times). The exertion value of the subjects’ handgrip strengths was mat...

Mirror therapy is an effective technique for pain relief and motor function recovery. It has been demonstrated that magnetic 20-Hz activity is induced in the primary motor cortex (M1) after median nerve stimulation and that the amount of the stimulus-induced 20-Hz activity is decreased when the M1 is activated. In the present study, we investigated how the image or the mirror reflection of a ha...

The coordinated and timed movements of human limbs require interactive cerebellar functions. We investigated the function of intercerebellar connectivity in controlling the movement speed of both hands with functional MRI experiments. Nine healthy, right-handed subjects performed finger movements at lower and higher speeds, as instructed. With finger movements at a higher speed, regional respon...

INTRODUCTION The superficial and deep palmar arterial arches are the main sources of blood supply to all structures in the human hand, and variations in these arterial arches are quite common. Although several studies have reported diameters and variations of these arches, to the authors' knowledge, no study has correlated such changes to handedness in adults. It is likely that dominance may pl...

The well-documented observation of bilateral performance gains following unilateral motor training, a phenomenon known as cross-limb transfer, has important implications for rehabilitation. It has recently been shown that provision of a mirror image of the active hand during unilateral motor training has the capacity to enhance the efficacy of this phenomenon when compared to training without a...

Perception of visual illusions is susceptible to manipulation of their spatial properties. Further, illusions can sometimes affect visually guided actions, especially the movement planning phase. Remarkably, visual properties of objects related to actions, such as affordances, can prime more accurate perceptual judgements. In spite of the amount of knowledge available on affordances and on the ...