title: Sensory reweighting in controls and stroke patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test sensitivity to proprioceptive, vestibular and visual stimulations of stroke patients with regard to balance.
  
  
  METHODS
  The postural control of 20 hemiparetic patients after a single hemispheric stroke that had occurred at least 6 months before the study along with 20 controls was probed with vibration, optokinetic, and vestibular galvanic stimulations. Balance was assessed using a force platform (PF) with two miniature inertial sensors placed on the head (C1) and the trunk (C2) under each sensory condition and measured by three composite scores as the mean displacement of the body (PF, C1, C2) during the stimulation. A subject with a composite score greater than the 75th percentile of the composite scores found in the control subjects was arbitrarily considered to be sensitive to that stimulation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both control and stroke patients showed large inter-individual variations in response to the three types of sensory stimulation. Among the hemiparetic patients, nearly 65% were sensitive to the optokinetic stimulation, 60% to the galvanic stimulation and 65% to the vibration stimulation. In contrast to the control group, all the hemiparetic subjects were sensitive to at least one type of stimulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Stroke patients are highly dependent on visual, proprioceptive and vestibular information in order to control their standing posture and individually differ in their relative sensitivity to each type of sensory stimulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contrarily to what one might suppose, the increased visual dependence manifested by stroke patients does not necessarily entail any neglect of proprioceptive and vestibular information.
authors.affiliation: PMR Department, University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rennes, 1, 2 rue Henri le Guilloux, 35000 Rennes, France. Isabelle.bonan@chu-rennes.fr
authors.forename: I V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Bonan
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marquer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eskiizmirliler
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Yelnik
authors.forename: P-P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Vidal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010291:Paresis / Q000503:physiopathology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013710:Tendons / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014732:Vibration; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult