Purpose: Moderate-to-high intensity locomotor training (M-HIT) is strongly recommended in stroke rehabilitation but outcomes are variable. This study aimed to identify baseline clinical characteristics that predict change in walking capacity following M-HIT in chronic stroke.
Methods: This analysis used data from the HIT-Stroke Trial (N=55), which involved up to 36 sessions of either moderate or high intensity locomotor training.
Background: Walking and balance impairment are common sequelae of stroke and significantly impact functional independence, morbidity, and mortality. Adequate postural stability is needed for walking, which requires sufficient integration of sensory information between the visual, somatosensory, and vestibular centers. "Sensory reweighting" describes the normal physiologic response needed to maintain postural stability in the absence of sufficient visual or somatosensory information and is believed to play a critical role in preserving postural stability after stroke.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Motivation is critically important for rehabilitation, exercise, and motor performance, but its neural basis is poorly understood. Recent correlational research suggests that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) may be involved in motivation for walking activity and/or descending motor output. This study experimentally evaluated brain activity changes in periods of additional motivation during walking exercise and tested how these brain activity changes relate to self-reported exercise motivation and walking speed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCortical activity is typically indexed by analyzing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals in terms of the mean (e.g., mean oxygenated hemoglobin; HbO).
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