Stroke Patients' Perception of an Inclined Sitting Support Surface: a Comparison between Visual and Proprioceptive Inputs

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to examine disorders in the perception of an inclined seat surface of post-stroke hemiplegic patients on presentation of visual or proprioceptive cues. The participants were six hemiplegic patients without parietal lobe lesions, higher order cortical dysfunction or sensory impairment, and six healthy elderly persons as a control group. Two kinds of presentation cue were prepared for an alignment task: an inclined or horizontal bar (V-cue) displayed on a monitor watched by the subjects; and an inclined or horizontal stand (P-cue) placed on a table in front of the subjects on which they placed their arms. The presentation cues were inclined 0, 5 and 10 degrees to the right and left sides, the paretic and unaffected sides of the hemiplegic patients, respectively. The subjects sat on a laterally inclined seat, and were asked to verbally report when the inclination angle of the seat was aligned with the presentation cue; the angle of error was recorded. For the hemiplegic patients under the P-cue condition, when the cue was 10 degrees on the paretic (right) side, the angle of error was significantly increased compared to the unaffected side and both sides of the control group. This result indicates that the hemiplegic patients had a disorder in perception of the body angle on the paretic side. The integration function of postural perception based on visual and proprioceptive information is discussed.

Effects of conventional neurological treatment and a virtual reality training program on eye-hand coordination in children with cerebral palsy

“…It is thought that the significant results in terms of eye-hand coordination scores indicate a positive impact on eye-hand coordination with age. Visual perception capabilities are the most important and fundamental perception capabilities throughout early childhood and can affect self-help activities, work, play, and leisure activities in infants 19 ) . Handwriting clarity in children between five and six is reported to be correlated with eye-hand coordination in visual-motor coordination activities requiring mobility, such as drawing by tracing, and with visual-motor speeds.…”