Deans' stroke musings: Alterations in upper limb muscle synergy structure in chronic stroke survivors

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Alterations in upper limb muscle synergy structure in chronic stroke survivors

I wish they would know how to break muscle synergy. Recovery could occur much faster if there was a specified way to defeat those synergies.
http://search.naric.com/research/rehab/redesign_record.cfm?search=2&type=all&criteria=J67535&phrase=no&rec=123301
NARIC Accession Number: J67535. What's this?
ISSN: 0022-3077.
Author(s): Roh, Jinsook; Rymer, William Z.; Perreault, Eric J.; Yoo, Seng B.; Beer, Randall F..
Project Number: H133G060169.
Publication Year: 2013.
Number of Pages: 14.
Abstract: Study examined the structure and recruitment of muscle synergies underlying isometric force generation in severely impaired stroke survivors. Previous studies have shown that motor coordination can be described by task-dependent combinations of a few muscle synergies, defined as a fixed pattern of activation across a set of muscles. Arm function in severely impaired stroke survivors is characterized by stereotypical postural and movement patterns involving the shoulder and elbow. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that muscle synergy composition is altered in severely impaired stroke survivors. Using an isometric force matching protocol, the spatial activation patterns of elbow and shoulder muscles were examined in the affected arm of 10 stroke survivors and in both arms of 6 age-matched controls. Underlying muscle synergies were identified using non-negative matrix factorization. In both groups, muscle activation patterns could be reconstructed by combinations of a few muscle synergies (typically 4). Abnormal coupling of shoulder and elbow muscles was not found within individual muscle synergies. In stroke survivors, as in controls, two of the synergies were comprised of isolated activation of the elbow flexors and extensors. However, muscle synergies involving proximal muscles exhibited consistent alterations following stroke. Unlike controls, the anterior deltoid was coactivated with medial and posterior deltoids within the shoulder abductor/extensor synergy and the shoulder adductor/flexor synergy in stroke was dominated by activation of pectoralis major, with limited anterior deltoid activation. Recruitment of the altered shoulder muscle synergies was strongly associated with abnormal task performance. Overall, the results suggest that an impaired control of the individual deltoid heads may contribute to poststroke deficits in arm function.