title: Influence of visual feedback in the regulation of arm stiffness following stroke.
abstract: Stroke survivors strongly rely on visual feedback to control their movements, since segmental reflexes are characterized by an inherent hyper-excitability. To test the effect of visual feedback on the modulation of arm stability we estimated the stiffness of the paretic arm in nine stroke survivors during robot mediated therapy, where subjects trained with and without vision. While several studies found a negligible effect in unimpaired individuals, our results highlighted a marked reduction of stroke survivors' arm stiffness in absence of visual feedback.
authors.affiliation: Sensory Motor Performance Program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. d-piovesan@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Piovesan
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casadio
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Morasso
authors.forename: Psiche
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giannoni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001132:Arm / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D056228:Feedback, Sensory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*