"Functional motor amnesia" in stroke (1904) and "learned non-use phenomenon" (1966).
The "learned non-use phenomenon" described by Taub, one of the most original recent contributions to rehabilitation medicine probably corresponds to what Henry Meige (1866-1940), who studied under J.-M. Charcot, described in hemiplegics in 1904 using the expression "functional motor amnesia". He specified in 1914 at the time of the Babinski description of anosognosia, that: "Even with educated subjects who are still relatively young we are sometimes confronted with strange incapacities that are not due to impotence, negligence, or lack of confidence in the results. [...] With the transitory halting of the motility all memory of the function appears to have disappeared". Meige describes motor disorders that are: (i) distinct from lesional paralyses; (ii) secondary to the absence of activity; (iii) linked to a learning process; (iv) linked to a phenomenon of functional memory loss; (v) reversible; and (vi) motor re-education focusing on extended and repeated practice of the lost function: the same characteristics as the "phenomenon of learned non-use" described by Taub in monkeys then in man.
André
Jean-Marie
JM
Nancy Regional Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Nancy, Nancy, France. jmandre@irr.u-nancy.fr
Didier
Jean-Pierre
JP
Paysant
Jean
J
D005602:France; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010291:Paresis / Q000503:physiopathology; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000266:history*; D020521:Stroke / Q000266:history*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation