Changes in motor-flexibility following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction as measured by means of a leg-amplitude differentiation task with haptic and visual feedback.

Background: In the current study changes in lower-limb motor flexibility of patients undergoing Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction were evaluated in relation to fear of harm.

Methods: Fourteen patients were measured pre- and post-surgery, and data were compared to those of a single measurement in fifteen controls. Lower-limb motor-flexibility was assessed in treadmill-walking and a cyclic leg-amplitude differentiation task augmented with haptic or visual feedback.

Leg-amplitude differentiation guided by haptic and visual feedback to detect alterations in motor flexibility due to Total Knee Replacement.

Following total knee replacement (TKR), patients often persist in maladaptive motor behavior which they developed before surgery to cope with symptoms of osteoarthritis. An important challenge in physical therapy is to detect, recognize and change such undesired movement behavior. The goal of this study was to measure the differences in clinical status of patients pre-TKR and post-TKR and to investigate if differences in clinical status were accompanied by differences in the patients'' motor flexibility.

Does motor expertise facilitate amplitude differentiation of lower limb-movements in an asymmetrical bipedal coordination task?

The motor system's natural tendency is to move the limbs over equal amplitudes, for example in walking. However, in many situations in which people must perform complex movements, a certain degree of amplitude differentiation of the limbs is required. Visual and haptic feedback have recently been shown to facilitate such independence of limb movements.

Haptic feedback helps bipedal coordination.

The present study investigated whether special haptic or visual feedback would facilitate the coordination of in-phase, cyclical feet movements of different amplitudes. Seventeen healthy participants sat with their feet on sliding panels that were moved externally over the same or different amplitudes. The participants were asked to generate simultaneous knee flexion-extension movements, or to let their feet be dragged, resulting in reference foot displacements of 150 mm and experimental foot displacements of 150, 120, or 90 mm.

Cortical control of normal gait and precision stepping: an fNIRS study.

Recently, real time imaging of the cortical control of gait became possible with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). So far, little is known about the activations of various cortical areas in more complex forms of gait, such as precision stepping. From previous work on animals and humans one would expect precision stepping to elicit extra activity in the sensorimotor cortices (S1/M1), supplementary motor area (SMA), as well as in prefrontal cortices (PFC).