Neurorehabilitation and neural repair
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Feb 2015
Effect of intrathecal baclofen bolus injection on ankle muscle activation during gait in patients with acquired brain injury.
Intrathecal baclofen (ITB) bolus injection effectively decreases spinal excitability but the impact on lower limb muscle activation during gait has not been thoroughly investigated. ⋯ ITB bolus injection alters the activation of MG and TA during gait. However, the changes in muscle activation are not closely related to the changes in gait speed or resting muscle hypertonia. The analysis of ankle muscle activation during gait better characterizes the response to ITB bolus injection than gait kinematics.
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Feb 2015
Comparative StudyAge-dependent reorganization of peri-infarct "premotor" cortex with task-specific rehabilitative training in mice.
The incidence of stroke in adulthood increases with advancing age, but there is little understanding of how poststroke treatment should be tailored by age. ⋯ Our results indicate that reorganization of motor cortex may be limited by either aging or greater tissue damage, but the capacity to improve motor function via task-specific rehabilitative training continues to be well maintained in aged animals.
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Feb 2015
Comparative StudyMotor switching and motor adaptation deficits contribute to freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease.
Patients with freezing of gait (FOG) have more difficulty with switching tasks as well as controlling the spatiotemporal parameters of gait than patients without FOG. Objective. To compare the ability of patients with and without FOG to adjust their gait to sudden speed switching and to prolonged walking in asymmetrical conditions. ⋯ Freezers have more difficulties adapting their gait during both suddenly triggered and continued gait speed asymmetry. The impaired ability of freezers during both switching and reswitching would suggest that they have an adaptive deficit rather than difficulties with asymmetry per se. Future work needs to address whether these adaptation problems can be ameliorated with rehabilitation.