Compensatory Trunk Movements in Naturalistic Reaching and Manipulation Tasks in Chronic Stroke Survivors
Click name to view affiliation
Search for other papers by Shanie A.L. Jayasinghe in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Rui Wang in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Rani Gebara in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Subir Biswas in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Rajiv Ranganathan in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Impairment of arm movements poststroke often results in the use of compensatory trunk movements to complete motor tasks. These compensatory movements have been mostly observed in tightly controlled conditions, with very few studies examining them in more naturalistic settings. In this study, the authors quantified the presence of compensatory movements during a set of continuous reaching and manipulation tasks performed with both the paretic and nonparetic arm (in 9 chronic stroke survivors) or the dominant arm (in 20 neurologically unimpaired control participants). Kinematic data were collected using motion capture to assess trunk and elbow movement. The authors found that trunk displacement and rotation were significantly higher when using the paretic versus nonparetic arm (P = .03). In contrast, elbow angular displacement was significantly lower in the paretic versus nonparetic arm (P = .01). The reaching tasks required significantly higher trunk compensation and elbow movement than the manipulation tasks. These results reflect increased reliance on compensatory trunk movements poststroke, even in everyday functional tasks, which may be a target for home rehabilitation programs. This study provides a novel contribution to the rehabilitation literature by examining the presence of compensatory movements in naturalistic reaching and manipulation tasks.
Jayasinghe and Ranganathan are with the Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Wang and Biswas are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Gebara is with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Ranganathan is also with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
© 2023 Human Kinetics