Correlation between the Quality of Attention and Cognitive Competence with Motor Action in Stroke Patients

Abstract

It is considered that cognitive function and attention could affect walking, motion control, and proper conduct during the walk. To determine whether there is a difference in the quality of attention and cognitive ability in stroke patients and patients without neurological damage of similar age and education and to determine whether the connection of attention and cognition affects motor skills, the sample consisted of 50 stroke patients tested with hemiparesis, involved in the process of rehabilitation, and 50 persons, randomly chosen, without neurological damage. The survey used the following tests: Trail Making (TMT A B) test for assessing the flexibility of attention; Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for cognitive status; Functional Ambulation Category (FAC) test to assess the functional status and parameters of walk: speed, frequency, and length of stride; STEP test for assessing the precision of movement and balance. With stroke patients, relationship between age and performance on the MMSE test was marginally significant. The ratio of performance to TMT A B test and years does not indicate statistical significance, while statistical significance between the MMSE test performance and education exists. In stroke patients, performance on MMSE test is correlated with the frequency and length of stride walk. The quality of cognitive function and attention is associated with motor skills but differs in stroke patients and people without neurological damage of similar age. The significance of this correlation can supplement research in neurorehabilitation, improve the quality of medical rehabilitation, and contribute to efficient recovery of these patients.

Motor Imagery and Action Observation as Effective Tools for Physical Therapy

“…A possible reason for the different effects of motor imagery is the decline of cognitive function after a patient experiences a stroke. A previous study reported that not only motor function but also cognitive function declines after a stroke [31]. Moreover, cognitive function is largely associated with the ability to execute motor imagery [32].…”

“…The cognitive function is greatly associated with cognitive information processing. Therefore, the level of difficulty is higher in motor imagery than action observation, especially for stroke patients who see a decline in cognitive function [31]. How then are action observation and motor imagery used for physical therapy?…”

Motor dexterity and strength depend upon integrity of the attention-control system

“…A well-known example of this is motor neglect ( 2 ), in which unilateral motor dysfunction arises from a lateralized attentional bias, rather than because of primary motor, or corticospinal tract, disruption. However, focal brain lesions also impair nonspatial forms of attention, such as alertness ( 1 ), that are associated with motor function ( 3 , 4 ) although the nature of this relationship is unclear.…”

Restoration of the complicated locomotor functions of the upper extremities in the patients surviving ischemic stroke

“…В результате аппаратных специ-ализированных функциональных тренировок и БОС-тренировок бытовой направленности (task specifi c training) больные адаптируются к выполне-нию бытовых навыков вне занятий (питание, туа-лет, уход за собой, профессиональные навыки) [4,[16][17][18][19][20][21]. Одновременно с этим виртуальный и игро-вой характер тренировок активизирует когнитив-ные и эмоциональные процессы в головном мозге, за счет которых поддерживается устойчивое внима-ние больного в ходе одного занятия и сохраняется высокая мотивация на протяжении всего курса ле-чения [5,8,14,[22][23][24].…”