I have no choice in the matter, the left arm/hand is worthless for anything. All because of spasticity, solve spasticity and I'll recover the left arm in no time. I can't see how anything in this research is going to help survivors recover.
Choice of Arm Use in Stroke Survivors is Largely Driven by the Energetic Cost of the Movement
Abstract
Background
The
decision of which arm to use to achieve a goal depends on energetic
costs and performance abilities of each arm. Following a stroke, there
is a reduction in the use of the more-impaired arm. Is it because the
energetic costs of the more-impaired arm are increased, or because its
use dictates a lower chance of success? (The answer is simple, the lower chance of success. Duh, and you needed research for that? Any survivor could have told you that!)
Objective
We sought to elucidate the impact of energetic cost and task success on the arm choice of stroke survivors.
Methods
Thirteen
chronic stroke survivors and thirteen neurologically-intact subjects
participated in an experiment where they reached towards visual targets
in a virtual-reality environment. Energetic cost of reaching with their
less-used arm (nondominant/more-impaired) was adjusted by amplifying the
range of motion, while task accuracy requirement was independently
modulated by changing target size.
Results
Reducing
the energic cost of reaching increased the use of the less-used arms in
both groups, but by a greater amount in the stroke survivors. In
contrast, lowering task accuracy requirement altered arm choice
similarly in the two groups. The time spent in decision-making (reaction
time) reflected different impacts of energetic cost and task success on
the arm choice of the two groups. Conversely, velocity changes were
similar between the groups.
Conclusions
The
impact of energetic cost on arm choice of stroke survivors is greater
than neurologically-intact subjects. Thus, the reduction in the use of
the impaired arm following stroke may be primarily due to a subjective
increase in the effort it takes to use that arm.
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