Thumbs up: Imagined hand movements counteract the adverse effects of post-surgical hand immobilization. Clinical, behavioral, and fMRI longitudinal observations.

ABSTRACT: Motor imagery (M.I.) training has been widely used to enhance motor behavior. To characterize the neural foundations of its rehabilitative effects in a pathological population we studied twenty-two patients with rhizarthrosis, a chronic degenerative articular disease in which thumb-to-fingers opposition becomes difficult due to increasing pain while the brain is typically intact. Before and after surgery, patients underwent behavioral tests to measure pain and motor performance and fMRI measurements of brain motor activity. After surgery, the affected hand was immobilized, and patients were enrolled in a M.I. training. The sample was split in those who had a high compliance with the program of scheduled exercises (T+, average compliance: 84%) and those with low compliance (T-, average comp

SUBMITTER: Gandola M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6506638 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature