1. Long-term disuse of the hand affects motor imagery ability in patients with complete brachial plexus palsy
- Author
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Shota Date, Manabu Yoshimura, Junji Hayashi, Rikuo Shinomiya, Hiroshi Kurumadani, Akiko Fukae, Toru Sunagawa, and Koji Onishi
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,0301 basic medicine ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Mental rotation ,Avulsion ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Physical medicine and rehabilitation ,Motor imagery ,Reaction Time ,Humans ,Medicine ,In patient ,Young adult ,Brachial Plexus Neuropathies ,Palsy ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,030104 developmental biology ,Imagination ,Female ,Peripheral Nerve Disorders ,business ,Brachial plexus ,Psychomotor Performance ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine motor imagery ability in patients with peripheral nerve disorder using the hand mental rotation task. Five patients with left total avulsion brachial plexus palsy (BPP) and 16 healthy age-matched adults participated in this study. The mean±SD time from the injury was 103.6±49.7 months. Participants performed a hand mental rotation task as the motor imagery task; outcome measures included the reaction time from cognizing hand stimuli to the judgment of hand laterality (right or left) and the error rate. Patients also completed the Hand 20 questionnaire to assess the use of their affected limb. Log-transformed reaction times of the affected limb in patients with BPP were significantly higher than those of the unaffected limb and the left-sided limb of the healthy participants. Log-transformed reaction times of the unaffected limb in patients were significantly higher than those of the right-sided limb in healthy participants. Log-transformed error rate did not differ between patients and healthy participants. According to the results of the Hand 20 questionnaire, patients with BPP hardly used their affected limb because of severe sensory-motor dysfunction. Motor imagery ability of the affected and unaffected limbs in patients with complete BPP may be decreased owing to long-term disuse. These findings suggest that long-term disuse in those with severe peripheral nerve disorders could affect motor imagery ability of both the affected and unaffected limbs.
- Published
- 2019