Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke
Purpose: Many individuals with stroke partake in rehabilitation to improve their movements. Rehabilitation operates on the assumption that individuals with stroke can use visual feedback from their movements or visual cues from a therapist to improve their movements through practice. However, this t...
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MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Brain Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/6/619 |
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| author | Robert Taylor Moore Mark Andrew Piitz Nishita Singh Sean Peter Dukelow Tyler Cluff |
| author_facet | Robert Taylor Moore Mark Andrew Piitz Nishita Singh Sean Peter Dukelow Tyler Cluff |
| author_sort | Robert Taylor Moore |
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| description | Purpose: Many individuals with stroke partake in rehabilitation to improve their movements. Rehabilitation operates on the assumption that individuals with stroke can use visual feedback from their movements or visual cues from a therapist to improve their movements through practice. However, this type of visuomotor learning can be impaired after stroke. It is unclear whether and how learning impairments relate to impairments in movement. Here, we examined the relationship between learning and movement impairments after stroke. Methods: We recruited adults with first-time unilateral stroke and controls matched for overall age and sex. The participants performed a visuomotor learning task in a Kinarm exoskeleton robot. The task assessed how they adapted their reaching movements to a systematic visual disturbance that altered the relationship between the observed and actual motion of their hand. Learning was quantified as the extent to which the participants adapted their movements to the visual disturbance. A separate visually-guided reaching task was used to assess the straightness, direction, smoothness, and duration of their movements. The relationships between visuomotor adaptation and movement were analyzed using Spearman’s correlations. Control data were used to identify impairments in visuomotor adaptation and movement. The independence of these impairments was examined using Fisher’s exact tests. Results: Impairments in visuomotor adaptation (46.3%) and movement (73.2%) were common in participants with stroke (<i>n</i> = 41). We observed weak–moderate correlations between continuous measures of adaptation and movement performance (rho range: −0.44–0.58). Adaptation and movement impairments, identified using the range of performance in the control participants, were statistically independent (all <i>p</i> > 0.05). Conclusions: Movement impairments accounted for 34% of the variance in visuomotor adaptation at best. Our findings suggest that factors other than movement impairments may influence visuomotor adaptation after stroke. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c1e8b0e680504d66a9a6488d971e52c1 |
| institution | Matheson Library |
| issn | 2076-3425 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Brain Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-c1e8b0e680504d66a9a6488d971e52c12025-06-25T13:35:17ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252025-06-0115661910.3390/brainsci15060619Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After StrokeRobert Taylor Moore0Mark Andrew Piitz1Nishita Singh2Sean Peter Dukelow3Tyler Cluff4Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaHotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaPurpose: Many individuals with stroke partake in rehabilitation to improve their movements. Rehabilitation operates on the assumption that individuals with stroke can use visual feedback from their movements or visual cues from a therapist to improve their movements through practice. However, this type of visuomotor learning can be impaired after stroke. It is unclear whether and how learning impairments relate to impairments in movement. Here, we examined the relationship between learning and movement impairments after stroke. Methods: We recruited adults with first-time unilateral stroke and controls matched for overall age and sex. The participants performed a visuomotor learning task in a Kinarm exoskeleton robot. The task assessed how they adapted their reaching movements to a systematic visual disturbance that altered the relationship between the observed and actual motion of their hand. Learning was quantified as the extent to which the participants adapted their movements to the visual disturbance. A separate visually-guided reaching task was used to assess the straightness, direction, smoothness, and duration of their movements. The relationships between visuomotor adaptation and movement were analyzed using Spearman’s correlations. Control data were used to identify impairments in visuomotor adaptation and movement. The independence of these impairments was examined using Fisher’s exact tests. Results: Impairments in visuomotor adaptation (46.3%) and movement (73.2%) were common in participants with stroke (<i>n</i> = 41). We observed weak–moderate correlations between continuous measures of adaptation and movement performance (rho range: −0.44–0.58). Adaptation and movement impairments, identified using the range of performance in the control participants, were statistically independent (all <i>p</i> > 0.05). Conclusions: Movement impairments accounted for 34% of the variance in visuomotor adaptation at best. Our findings suggest that factors other than movement impairments may influence visuomotor adaptation after stroke.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/6/619stroke recoverystroke rehabilitationmotor learningmotor adaptationmovement impairmentupper limb |
| spellingShingle | Robert Taylor Moore Mark Andrew Piitz Nishita Singh Sean Peter Dukelow Tyler Cluff Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke Brain Sciences stroke recovery stroke rehabilitation motor learning motor adaptation movement impairment upper limb |
| title | Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke |
| title_full | Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke |
| title_fullStr | Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke |
| title_full_unstemmed | Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke |
| title_short | Movement Impairments May Not Preclude Visuomotor Adaptation After Stroke |
| title_sort | movement impairments may not preclude visuomotor adaptation after stroke |
| topic | stroke recovery stroke rehabilitation motor learning motor adaptation movement impairment upper limb |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/6/619 |
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