OBJECTIVE To assess initial efficacy and tolerability of a thumb opposition splint on manual dexterity, perceived upper limb functioning and occupational performance in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. DESIGN One group pre-post design. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirteen patients were provided with a neoprene opposition splint for their dominant hand. Manual dexterity (Sollerman hand fu...

Brain lesions may disturb hand functioning in children with cerebral palsy (CP), making it difficult or even impossible for them to perform several manual activities. Most conventional treatments for hand dysfunction in CP assume that reducing the hand dysfunctions will improve the capacity to manage activities (i.e., manual ability, MA). The aim of this study was to investigate the directional...

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often show impaired manual dexterity even when being only minimally bradykinetic, suggesting that they may have limb kinetic apraxia (LKA), that is, a loss of fine motor skill not explained by elemental motor deficits. To explore this dissociation, we investigated the differential dopaminergic responsiveness of dexterity and bradykinesia in PD. Twelve pati...

Background Research has suggested that persistent sensory and motor impairments predominate the symptoms experienced by patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS); with intermittent pain symptoms, being less predominant. Objective The study aims to determine the relative contribution of sensory, motor and pain impairments as contributors to patient-report or performance-based hand function. ...

Interhemispheric inhibition (IHI) between motor cortical areas is thought to play a critical role in motor control and could influence manual dexterity. The purpose of this study was to investigate IHI preceding movements of the dominant and nondominant hands of healthy volunteers. Movement-related IHI was studied by means of a double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol in right-ha...

A 51-year-old Caucasian man presented with cervical pain, right hand weakness, and progressively deteriorating gait. Onset of symptoms occurred 1 month before admission with cervical pain that worsened during neck flexion. A few days later he noticed reduced dexterity and numbness of his right hand. During the following 3 weeks, his gait became increasingly unstable. Additionally, he reported e...

Nonholonomic constraints in robotic systems are the source of some di culties in planning and control; however, they also introduce interesting properties that can be practically exploited. In this paper we consider the design of a robot hand that achieves dexterity (i.e., the ability to arbitrarily locate and reorient manipulated objects) through rolling. Some interesting issues arising in pla...