Contextual interference and augmented feedback: is there an additive effect for motor learning?

Learning to perform a skilled behavior is affected by the context of the practice session and the frequency of augmented feedback. We studied the combined effect of these variables in the acquisition of a ballistic, bi-directional lever movement pattern involving four different target locations as measured by performance in practice, retention, and transfer tests. Augmented feedback was presented in either an every-trial or a faded schedule during random and blocked practice.

Cerebral and cerebellar sensorimotor plasticity following motor imagery-based mental practice of a sequential movement.

Motor behavior and sensorimotor activation of the cerebrum and cerebellum were measured before and after motor imagery-based mental practice (MP) and physical practice (PP) of a sequential motor task. Two-button-press sequences (A, B) were performed outside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner and at 2 Hz inside the scanner during a pretest. Participants (n = 39) completed PP, MP, or no practice (NP) of Sequence A for 1 week and were posttested.

Self-concept and body image in persons who are spinal cord injured with and without lower limb amputation.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) requires considerable psychological adjustment to physical limitations and complications. One particularly severe complication of SCI is foot skin breakdown, which can result in lower limb amputation. Relative to SCI adjustment, amputation may produce one of two psychological outcomes: (a.

An fMRI investigation of hand representation in paraplegic humans.

Objective: Cortical reorganization can occur after deaf-ferentation due to loss of a limb, but the nature of the cortical reorganization after spinal cord injury (SCI) is still in debate.

Methods: Using a 1.5T MRI, we scanned paraplegic and noninjured participants during hand movement and palm stimulation, to determine whether longterm paraplegics would show different patterns of cortical activity from the noninjured participants.

Comparing chronic pain from spinal cord injury to chronic pain of other origins.

Acknowledged as a serious complaint of spinal cord injured (SCI) patients, chronic pain in this population is neither well studied nor well understood. To assess the quality and intensity of pain, a group of 49 SCI patients seeking treatment for chronic pain was compared to a general group of 95 patients from the Comprehensive Pain Clinic (CPC) on selected demographic variables, the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The SCI patients were categorized as functionally incomplete SCI (SCI-I) or complete SCI (SCI-C).

Treating chronic low back pain. II. Long-term follow-up.

Appraisal of chronic low back pain (CLBP) treatment outcome is incomplete unless results can be shown to be stable over an extended follow-up period. This paper concentrates on methods by which the long-term trends of objective outcome assessments can be studied and predictions developed given incomplete data. Employment and litigation status, self-rating of pain, activities, medications, and hospitalizations related to pain were periodically assessed in up to 210 graduates of a CLBP treatment program, over a period of 6 months to 5 years following treatment.

Treating chronic low back pain. I. Admissions to initial follow-up.

For a normative study of chronic low back pain (CLBP), 702 consecutive admissions to a large multidisciplinary CLBP treatment program were assessed at admission, discharge, and 1-month follow-up, using a variety of psychological and functional performance instruments. Both univariate and multivariate approaches to appraising success are evaluated. Psychological profiles demonstrated a substantial degree of disability at admissions, which is significantly reduced at follow-up.

Signal detection and threshold measures to loud tones and radiant heat in chronic low back pain patients and cohort controls.

Eleven chronic low back pain (CLBP) and 11 age- and sex-matched control subjects were tested during two separate sessions for the perception of radiant heat and uncomfortably loud tones. Following the determination of a subject's pain threshold (PT) for radiant heat, a standard signal detection methodology was used to present 26 trials each of 4 stimulus levels. The stimuli were rated on a 9-point scale ranging from 'nothing' to 'very strong pain.