Predictors and brain connectivity changes associated with arm motor function improvement from intensive practice in chronic stroke.

The brain changes that underlie therapy-induced improvement in motor function after stroke remain obscure. This study sought to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of measuring motor system physiology in a clinical trial of intensive upper extremity rehabilitation in chronic stroke-related hemiparesis. This was a substudy of two multi-center clinical trials of intensive robotic and intensive conventional therapy arm therapy in chronic, significantly hemiparetic, stroke patients.

Psychophysiological support of increasing attentional reserve during the development of a motor skill.

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between motor skill and attentional reserve. Participants practiced a reaching task with the dominant upper extremity, to which a distortion of the visual feedback was applied, while a control group performed the same task without distortion. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), elicited by auditory stimuli were recorded throughout practice.

Effect of gravity on robot-assisted motor training after chronic stroke: a randomized trial.

Objectives: To determine the efficacy of 2 distinct 6-week robot-assisted reaching programs compared with an intensive conventional arm exercise program (ICAE) for chronic, stroke-related upper-extremity (UE) impairment. To examine whether the addition of robot-assisted training out of the horizontal plane leads to improved outcomes.

Design: Randomized controlled trial, single-blinded, with 12-week follow-up.

Cortical networks produce three distinct 7-12 Hz rhythms during single sensory responses in the awake rat.

Cortical rhythms in the alpha/mu frequency range (7-12 Hz) have been variously related to "idling," anticipation, seizure, and short-term or working memory. This overabundance of interpretations suggests that sensory cortex may be able to produce more than one (and even more than two) distinct alpha/mu rhythms. Here we describe simultaneous local field potential and single-neuron recordings made from primary sensory (gustatory) cortex of awake rats and reveal three distinct 7-12 Hz de novo network rhythms within single sessions: an "early," taste-induced approximately 11 Hz rhythm, the first peak of which was a short-latency gustatory evoked potential; a "late," significantly lower-frequency (approximately 7 Hz) rhythm that replaced this first rhythm at approximately 750-850 ms after stimulus onset (consistently timed with a previously described shift in taste temporal codes); and a "spontaneous" spike-and-wave rhythm of intermediate peak frequency (approximately 9 Hz) that appeared late in the session, as part of a oft-described reduction in arousal/attention.