Poor motor function is associated with reduced sensory processing after stroke

Abstract

The possibility to regain motor function after stroke depends on the intactness of motor and sensory pathways. In this study, we evaluated afferent sensory pathway information transfer and processing after stroke with the coherence between cortical activity and a position perturbation (position-cortical coherence, PCC). Eleven subacute stroke survivors participated in this study. Subjects performed a motor task with the affected and non-affected arm while continuous wrist position perturbations were applied. Cortical activity was measured using EEG. PCC was calculated between position perturbation and EEG at the contralateral and ipsilateral sensorimotor area. The presence of PCC was quantified as the number of frequencies where PCC is larger than zero across the sensorimotor area. All subjects showed significant contralateral PCC in affected and non-affected wrist tasks. Subjects with poor motor function had a reduced presence of contralateral PCC compared with subjects with good motor function in the affected wrist tasks. Amplitude of significant PCC did not differ between subjects with good and poor motor function. Our results show that poor motor function is associated with reduced sensory pathway information transfer and processing in subacute stroke subjects. Position-cortical coherence may provide additional insight into mechanisms of recovery of motor function after stroke.

Unveiling neural coupling within the sensorimotor system: directionality and nonlinearity

“…Later on, PCC was employed to evaluate ascending somatosensory pathway information transfer in the subacute stroke patients. These results suggested that motor function impairment may company with reduced somatosensory processing after stroke (Campfens et al ., ). Previous studies have indicated that the importance of sensory feedback for motor recovery after stroke (Hamdy et al ., ; Rossini et al ., ).…”

Examining Differences in Patterns of Sensory and Motor Recovery After Stroke With Robotics

“…1,2,9 Yet, somatosensory deficits contribute to poor function after stroke, [10][11][12][13] with >50% of stroke survivors having proprioceptive impairments. 14,15 Although these deficits are thought to significantly affect stroke recovery, 10,16 few studies have examined the effect of somatosensory impairments on recovery.…”

Multi-sensory feedback therapy combined with task-oriented training on the hemiparetic upper limb in chronic stroke: study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial

“…The patients might feel tired, anxious, and lose self-confidence. Given that a majority of patients have sensory impairments that give rise to mental health issues, it is valuable to facilitate population's access to sensory intervention such as touch, vision and audiological rehabilitation [86].…”

“…Sensory function is an important composition of widely used physiotherapy approaches such as Bobath (known as Neurodevelopment Therapy in the United States) and Brunnstrom, and it is considered a precursor to the recovery of movement and functional activities of daily living in patients with stroke [9]. Poor motor function is associated with reduced sensory experience and processing after stroke [10,11]. Joint position sensation of the upper extremity is closely related to motor ability due to stroke-related reduced discrimination in proprioception [9], it causes disturbances in the arm movement trajectory.…”