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Effects of light touch on balance in patients with stroke
- Source :
- Open Medicine, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 259-263 (2019), Open Medicine
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Light touch is the combination of cutaneous and kinesthetic inputs. The literature suggests that light touch compensates for a reduced amount of center of pressure information in older peoples, blind subjects and patients with neurological disorder. This study investigated the effects of light touch applied to an external bar, on the postural sway in individuals with hemiparetic stroke. We used a cross sectional study, fifteen individuals with stroke and 15 healthy age-matched adults stood as still as possible on a force plate. Experimental trials (duration, 30 s) included two visual conditions (open eyes and closed eyes), two somatosensory conditions (no touch and light touch) and two support surface conditions (firm and foam surfaces). The area of center of pressure (COP) and the mean velocity of COP in the medio-lateral and anterior-posterior directions were assessed. For both groups, COP velocity and area decreased with light touch regardless of the visual or surface conditions. The effects of light touch were similar in both groups. In addition, results show that the effectiveness of light touch in reducing postural sway was greater on a foam surface than on a firm surface. Our findings indicate that light touch could be beneficial in postural control for individuals with hemi-paretic stroke
- Subjects :
- 030506 rehabilitation
medicine.medical_specialty
business.industry
balance
Light touch
General Medicine
Somatosensory system
stroke
Surface conditions
Postural control
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Physical medicine and rehabilitation
Center of pressure (terrestrial locomotion)
light touch
Closed eyes
Medicine
In patient
0305 other medical science
business
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Research Article
Balance (ability)
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 23915463
- Volume :
- 14
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Open Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7b67b114017cf5caae7f6bdc797c9047