BACKGROUND Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is widely used to induce plasticity in the human motor cortex. Although reciprocal inhibition of antagonist muscles plays a fundamental role in human movements, change in cortical circuits for reciprocal muscles by PAS is unknown. METHODS We investigated change in cortical plasticity for reciprocal muscles during PAS. PAS consisted of 200 pairs ...

Upper extremity (UE) hemiparesis persists after stroke, limiting hand function. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is an effective intervention to improve UE recovery, although the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Our objective was to establish a reliable protocol to measure UE agonist-antagonist forearm monosynaptic reflexes in a pilot study to determine if NMES improve...

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of fall type and fall height on the kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activation of the upper extremity during simulated forward falls using a novel fall simulation method. Twenty participants were released in a prone position from a Propelled Upper Limb Fall ARrest Impact System. Impacts occurred to the hands from two fall heights (0.05m and ...

While previous studies have assessed changes in corticospinal excitability following voluntary contraction coupled with electrical stimulation (ES), we sought to examine, for the first time in the field, real-time changes in corticospinal excitability. We monitored motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation and recorded the MEPs using a mechanomyogram, which is...

PURPOSE To investigate whether palmaris longus interposition or flexor carpi radialis ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition improve the outcome of trapezial excision for the treatment of basal joint arthritis after a minimum follow-up of 5 years. METHODS We randomized 174 thumbs with trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis into 3 groups to undergo simple trapeziectomy, trapeziectomy with...

spasticity is one of the common complications in upper motor neuron lesions and without appropriate treatment it causes disturbances in movement pattern. assessments of patients are effective in patient`s management. modified ashworth scale (mas) is one of the criteria in qualitative assessment of spasticity, and there are lots of controversies about its validity. the purpose of this study is t...

objectives: there are some controversies about the value of modified ashworth scale (mas) for assessing spasticity. the goal of this study was to investigate if there is any correlation between scores obtained from mas for wrist spasticity and electrophysiological recordings as the objective measure of spasticity. methods: in this cross-sectional study, 34 stroke patients were employed. wrist s...

The effect of vision on the excitability of corticospinal projections to the flexor carpi radialis (FCR) and extensor carpi radialis (ECR) muscles of right human forearm was investigated before and during discrete movement of the opposite limb. An external force opposed the initial phase of the movement (wrist flexion) and assisted the reverse phase, so that recruitment of the wrist extensors w...

Hand and foot movements are made more reliably when both limbs move in the same direction at the same time (isodirectional) compared with when they are made in opposite directions (anisodirectional). We hypothesized that M1 intracortical facilitation may subserve hand-foot coordination and reveal correlates that explain the preference for hand-foot movements to be performed in an isodirectional...

The observation of a sinusoidal flexion-extension of the wrist was utilized to determine the continuous time course and phase relation between observed movement and its effects on the observer's motor pathways. While observing movements performed by others, the observers' cortical motor areas and spinal circuits were activated, reflecting the specific temporal and muscular pattern of the actual...