Prolonged cognitive planning time, elevated cognitive effort, and relationship to coordination and motor control following stroke

Abstract

Understanding cortical function can provide accurately targeted interventions after stroke. Initially, stroke survivors had prolonged cognitive planning time and elevated cognitive effort, highly correlated with motor control impairments. Exploratory results suggest that neurorehabilitation, accurately targeted to dyscoordination, weakness, and dysfunctional task component execution, can improve cognitive processes controlling motor function.

Diminished capacity to modulate motor activation patterns according to task contributes to thumb deficits following stroke

“…Reduced reciprocal inhibition (Crone et al 2000), abnormal synergies (Dewald et al 1995), or even impaired motor planning (Daly et al 2006) may contribute to degrading these activation patterns. Reduction of corticospinal input may also lead to increased influence of brainstem pathways, which are thought to provide less-flexible control of individual muscles (Riddle et al 2009), such as the reticulospinal pathway.…”

Weakening of Synergist Muscle Coupling During Reaching Movement in Stroke Patients

“…18 The precision of following the desired movement path results in smaller lateral deviation. The force applied by subject during reaching was measured in the forward/backward direction by a built-in load cell within the system.…”

Shoulder and elbow muscle activity during fully supported trajectory tracking in people who have had a stroke

“…If this is applicable to triceps in this study, where the delay in initiation reduced as a result of the intervention, this would suggest that motor processing has become more efficient, possibly as a result of synaptic changes or increased cortical drive. This is supported by a study which used electroencephalography to identify prolonged cognitive planning time and elevated cognitive effort in stroke compared to neurologically intact participants during a 2D reaching task (Daly et al, 2006). Following a period of intense neurorehabilitation with three of the stroke participants, there was a significant reduction towards normal in the cognitive planning time and effort.…”