Changes in cerebral activity after decreased upper-limb hypertonus: an EMG-fMRI study.

Objective: Whereas several studies have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate motor recovery, whether therapy to decrease post-stroke hypertonus alters central motor patterns remains unclear. In this study, we used continuous electromyography (EMG)-fMRI to investigate possible changes in movement-related brain activation in patients receiving Botulinum toxin (BoNT-A) for hand-muscle hypertonus after chronic stroke.

Methods: We studied eight stroke patients all of whom had hemiparesis and associated upper-limb hypertonus.