Useless for us, healthy participants were used. So nothing will ever occur to help stroke survivors. WE HAVE NO STRATEGY AND NO LEADERSHIP IN TRYING TO SOLVE STROKE!
Corticospinal Excitability Quantification During a Visually-Guided Precision Walking Task in Humans: Potential for Neurorehabilitation
Abstract
The
corticospinal tract has been shown to be involved in normal walking in
humans. However, its contribution during more challenging locomotor
tasks is still unclear. As the corticospinal tract can be a potential
target to promote gait recovery after neurological injury, it is of
primary importance to quantify its use during human walking. The aims of
the current study were to: (1) quantify the effects of precision
walking on corticospinal excitability as compared to normal walking; (2)
assess if corticospinal modulation is related to task difficulty or
participants’ performance. Sixteen healthy participants walked on a
treadmill during 2 tasks: regular walking (simple task) and stepping
onto virtual targets (precision task). Virtual targets appeared randomly
at 3 different step lengths: preferred, and ±20%. To assess
corticospinal excitability, 25 motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were
recorded from the tibialis anterior muscle in each task during walking.
Performance for each participant (global success score; % of target hit)
and task difficulty related to step length adjustments (success score
for each step length) were also calculated. MEP size was larger during
the precision task in all participants (mean increase of 93% ± 72%; P < .05) compared to the simple task. There was a correlation between MEP facilitation and individual performance (r = −.64; P < .05), but no difference in MEP size associated with task difficulty (P > .05).
In conclusion, corticospinal excitability exhibits a large increase
during the precision task. This effect needs to be confirmed in
neurological populations to potentially provide a simple and
non-invasive approach to increase corticospinal drive during gait
rehabilitation.
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