Spatio-temporal features of visual exploration in unilaterally brain-damaged subjects with or without neglect: results from a touchscreen test.

Cognitive assessment in a clinical setting is generally made by pencil-and-paper tests, while computer-based tests enable the measurement and the extraction of additional performance indexes. Previous studies have demonstrated that in a research context exploration deficits occur also in patients without evidence of unilateral neglect at pencil-and-paper tests. The objective of this study is to apply a touchscreen-based cancellation test, feasible also in a clinical context, to large groups of control subjects and unilaterally brain-damaged patients, with and without unilateral spatial neglect (USN), in order to assess disturbances of the exploratory skills.

Effects of sudden, passive muscle shortening according to Grimaldi's method on patients suffering from multiple sclerosis: a randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the short-term effect of a therapeutical approach called "Grimaldi's method." The authors hypothesized that Grimaldi's method would improve active muscle recruitment. The treatment was focused on hip abductors.

Trunk control in unstable sitting posture during functional activities in healthy subjects and patients with multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To examine trunk stability in unstable sitting posture in 2 different functional activities.

Design: A randomized crossover design.

Setting: Rehabilitation center in Italy.

Touch-screen system for assessing visuo-motor exploratory skills in neuropsychological disorders of spatial cognition.

A new computerised test adopting touch-screen technology has been developed to assess the visuo-motor exploration of extra-personal space. The test was derived from well-known paper-and-pencil cancellation tasks used widely in the diagnosis and quantitative assessment of unilateral spatial neglect (USN), a neuropsychological syndrome that is more frequent and severe after damage to the right cerebral hemisphere. A main component deficit of USN is the defective visuo-motor exploration of the side of space contralateral to the side of the lesion (contralesional), namely, in right-sided brain-damaged patients it occurs on the left side and vice versa.