Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) of primary motor cortex (M1) can transiently improve paretic hand function in chronic stroke. However, responses are variable so there is incentive to try to improve efficacy and or to predict response in individual patients. Both excitatory (Anodal) stimulation of ipsilesional M1 and inhibitory (Cathodal) stimulation of contralesional M1 can speed...

OBJECTIVE Stroke is one of the leading causes of physical disability due to damage of the motor cortex or the corticospinal tract. In the present study we set out to investigate the role of adaptations in the corticospinal pathway for motor recovery during the subacute phase after stroke. METHODS We examined 19 patients with clinically diagnosed stroke and 18 controls. The patients had unilat...

Forward propulsion is a central task of walking that depends on the generation of appropriate anterior-posterior ground reaction forces (AP GRFs). The AP impulse (i.e., time integral of the AP GRF) generated by the paretic leg relative to the non-paretic leg is a quantitative measure of the paretic leg's contribution to forward propulsion and is variable across hemiparetic subjects. The purpose...

Atherosclerosis has two key components, thickening and stiffening of arterial wall. These parameters are quantified ultrasonographically by IMT (intima-media thickness) and PWV (pulse wave velocity). In the present study, we determined the FA IMT (IMT of the bilateral femoral artery) and PWV of femoral-ankle (PWV fa) and brachial-ankle (PWV ba) segments in order to examine whether the degree of...

Individuals with chronic stroke have reduced perfusion of the paretic lower limb at rest; however, the hyperemic response to graded muscle contractions in this patient population has not been examined. This study quantified blood flow to the paretic and non-paretic lower limbs of subjects with chronic stroke after submaximal contractions of the knee extensor muscles and correlated those measure...

Clinical studies of hemiparetic walking have shown pre-swing abnormalities in the paretic leg suggesting that paretic muscle contributions to important biomechanical walking subtasks are different than those of non-disabled individuals. Three-dimensional forward dynamics simulations of two representative hemiparetic subjects with different levels of walking function classified by self-selected ...

27 After stroke, hemiparesis will result in impairments to locomotor control. Specifically, 28 muscle coordination deficits, in the form of inappropriately phased muscle activity patterns, 29 occur in both the paretic and non-paretic limbs. These dysfunctional paretic muscle coordination 30 patterns can adapt to somatosensory inputs and also, the sensorimotor state of non-paretic limb 31 can in...

AIM To provide first evidence of construct validity of a semi-quantitative scale for brain structural MRI (sqMRI scale) in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) secondary to periventricular white matter (PWM) lesions, by examining the relationship with hand sensorimotor function and whole brain structural connectivity. METHODS Cross-sectional study of 50 children with UCP due to PWM l...

[Purpose] The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of intensive gait training using a constrained induced movement therapy (CIMT) technique applied to the non-paretic upper extremity on the balance ability of stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty stroke patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group received gait tr...