title: Therapist recognition of impaired muscle groups in simulated multi-joint hypertonia.
abstract: It is common in today's clinical practice for a therapist to physically manipulate patients' limbs to assess hypertonic conditions (e.g. spasticity, rigidity, dystonia, among others). We present a study that evaluates the capabilities of expert therapists to correctly identify the location of a hypertonic impairment of an arm through standard manipulation. Therapists interacted with a hypertonic virtual arms rendered on a robotic device. Our results show that testing joints independently can cause misjudgment of the mechanical contributions of pluri-articular muscles to multi-joint impairment.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Melendez-Calderon
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Piovesan
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Mussa-Ivaldi
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009122:Muscle Hypertonia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059825:Physical Therapists