Enhancements in the strength of corticospinal projections to muscles are induced in conscious humans by paired associative stimulation (PAS) to the motor cortex. Although most of the previous studies support the hypothesis that the increase of the amplitude of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) by PAS involves long-term potentiation (LTP)-like mechanism in cortical synapses, changes in spinal excit...

Ten adults with hypertonic wrist flexors volunteered as subjects in an experiment comparing the effectiveness of dorsal and volar resting hand splints in the reduction of abnormal muscle tone. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups of five each, Individuals in one group were fitted with dorsal splints, and individuals in a second group with volar splints. Measurements by spring-weighted ...

OBJECTIVE Evaluate muscle force and motor function in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in a period of six months. METHOD Twenty children and adolescents with diagnosis of DMD were evaluated trough: measurement of the strength of the flexors and extensors of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee and ankle through the Medical Research Council (MRC), and application of the Motor Functi...

Vibration was applied to the tendon of flexor carpi radialis while recording the EMG of the wrist flexors in 29 Parkinsonian patients. Cessation of the vibration led to a small short-latency (approximately 25 ms) reduction in the level of activity which did not differ in magnitude from the normal. Moreover, there was no sign of any subsequent long-latency reduction of activity. Thus the maintai...

[Purpose] To clarify the motion-plane dependency of the range of dart throw motion and the effects of tendon action due to long finger flexors and extensors during the motion. [Subjects and Methods] Forty healthy subjects attended the experiment, and the active range of wrist motion in seven motion planes was measured with an originally designed apparatus. [Results] The reliability of the measu...

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the immediate effects of repetitive neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES)-assisted grasp-and-release activities on the hand of patients with tetraplegia. METHOD Three participants with C-5-C-6 tetraplegia underwent grasp training with sequential application of NMES to wrist extensors, finger flexors, and finger extensors to assist participants in graspi...

Twelve moderately to severely involved chronic stroke survivors (>12 mo) were randomized to one of two treatments: robotics and motor learning (ROB-ML) or functional neuromuscular stimulation and motor learning (FNS-ML). Treatment was 5 h/d, 5 d/wk for 12 wk. ROB-ML group had 1.5 h per session devoted to robotics shoulder and elbow (S/E) training. FNS-ML had 1.5 h per session devoted to functio...

Transcutaneous activation of muscles with electrical stimulation has limited selectivity in recruiting paralyzed muscles in stroke patients. However, the selectivity could be increased by the application of smaller electrodes and their appropriate positioning on the skin. We developed a method for selecting the appropriate positions of the stimulating electrodes based on electromyography (EMG)....

The effects upon the trajectories of practised slow (approximately 9 degrees/s) voluntary wrist-extension movements of applying vibration to the tendon of an antagonist muscle (flexor carpi radialis) during the course of the movement have been studied in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and age-matched healthy individuals. In both patient and control groups, flexor vibration elicite...

OBJECTIVES Exaggerated reflex responses to passive stretch and shortening contribute to parkinsonian rigidity. Studies have reported medication-induced reductions in rigidity in the absence of attenuated reflex magnitudes. The purpose of this study was to determine if normalization procedures mask medication-induced reductions in reflex responses in Parkinson's disease. METHODS Twelve partici...