The primary focus of rehabilitation for individuals with loss of upper limb movement as a result of acquired brain injury is the relearning of specific motor skills and daily tasks. This relearning is essential because the loss of upper limb movement often results in a reduced quality of life. Although rehabilitation strives to take advantage of neuroplastic processes during recovery, results of traditional approaches to upper limb rehabilitation have not entirely met this goal. In contrast, enriched training tasks, simulated with a wide range of low- to high-end virtual reality-based simulations, can be used to provide meaningful, repetitive practice together with salient feedback, thereby maximizing neuroplastic processes via motor learning and motor recovery. Such enriched virtual environments have the potential to optimize motor learning by manipulating practice conditions that explicitly engage motivational, cognitive, motor control, and sensory feedback-based learning mechanisms. The objectives of this article are to review motor control and motor learning principles, to discuss how they can be exploited by virtual reality training environments, and to provide evidence concerning current applications for upper limb motor recovery. The limitations of the current technologies with respect to their effectiveness and transfer of learning to daily life tasks also are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130579 | DOI Listing |
Int Orthop
January 2025
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Division, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University, Redwood City, CA, USA.
Purpose: This narrative review identifies and summarizes current evidence for diagnostic ultrasonographic evaluation of upper extremity dynamic compressive neuropathies affecting athletes.
Methods: Relevant literature was identified using the PubMed database and then summarized.
Results: The compressive neuropathies affecting athletes we identified included: neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, pectoralis minor syndrome, quadrilateral space syndrome, suprascapular nerve entrapment, proximal median nerve entrapment or bicipital aponeurosis/lacertus fibrosus (lacertus syndrome), radial tunnel syndrome, and cubital tunnel syndrome.
J Head Trauma Rehabil
January 2025
Author Affiliations: Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (Prof Ponsford and Drs Spitz, Pyman, Carrier, Hicks, and Nguyen); Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (Dr Spitz); TIRR Memorial Hermann Research Center Houston, Texas (Drs Sander and Sherer); and H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine & Harris Health System, Houston, Texas (Drs Sander and Sherer).
Objectives: This study aimed to identify outcome clusters among individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), 6 months to 10 years post-injury, in an Australian rehabilitation sample, and determine whether scores on 12 dimensions, combined with demographic and injury severity variables, could predict outcome cluster membership 1 to 3 years post-injury.
Setting: Rehabilitation hospital.
Participants: A total of 467 individuals with TBI, aged 17 to 87 (M = 44.
High-velocity traumatic amputations of the proximal upper extremity are devastating to the patient and represent an extreme surgical challenge to the treatment team. The hand surgeon must simultaneously battle devascularization with timely microvascular anastomosis, gross contamination with meticulous debridement, and amputation with stable fixation. In restoring a functional extremity, many of these goals are in contention with each other.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Brachial Plex Peripher Nerve Inj
January 2025
School of Health Sciences, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. In response to injury within the central nervous system, GABA promotes cortical plasticity and represents a potential pharmacological target to improve functional recovery. However, it is unclear how GABA changes in the brain after traumatic brachial plexus injuries (tBPIs) which represents the rationale for this pilot study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neuroeng Rehabil
January 2025
Luzerner Kantonsspital, University, Teaching and Research Hospital, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Background: Construct validity and responsiveness of upper limb outcome measures are essential to interpret motor recovery poststroke. Evaluating the associations between clinical upper limb measures and sensor-based arm use (AU) fosters a coherent understanding of motor recovery. Defining sensor-based AU metrics for intentional upper limb movements could be crucial in mitigating bias from walking-related activities.
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