None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
BACKGROUND: Stroke is the main disease which leads to disability in several countries in the world and it is caused by interruption of blood flow to brain, rupture of a blood vessel or occlusion with a clot. This interruption cause much damage to nervous tissue varying according to the lesioned area and extension. Recent studies indicate that, in regards to the local of the lesion, stroke subjects have difficulty on motor skills learning when compared to healthy subjects. OBJECTIVE: Investigating motor skill learning in subjects after stroke and comparing them to healthy subjects. METHOD: 40 subjects participated of this study divided in two groups: experimental group (EG) and control group (CG), where both groups performed a maze task with pen and paper. This study consisted of acquisition phase (AQ) and transfer tests (TR) and retention at short (R1) and long term (R2). Dependent variable was total time for performing this action. RESULTS: Intragroup analysis showed both groups improved with practice. Intergroup analysis (CGxEG) detected significant differences in all learning tests, indicating inferiority of EG when compared to CG. CONCLUSION: Post-stroke subjects are able to learn a motor skill, but they reached an inferior performance when compared to CG.
Interventions
Motor learning design: practice of 50 trials (in the same day - duration of 30 minutes of practice - this 30 minutes duration is the total time to perform all 50 trials) with a maze task with paper and pen. The purpose of the task is to find out the exit from the begining of the maze, considering that there is only one way to find the exit from the entrance. All the subjects, including the stroke patients performed 50 trials of the maze task and time was the variable measured. This phase was nom
Motor learning design: practice of 50 trials (in the same day - duration of 30 minutes of practice - this 30 minutes duration is the total time to perform all 50 trials) with a maze task with paper and pen. The purpose of the task is to find out the exit from the begining of the maze, considering that there is only one way to find the exit from the entrance. All the subjects, including the stroke patients performed 50 trials of the maze task and time was the variable measured. This phase was nominated acquisition phase in which the subject practice the task to acquire a better performance. Then, they were retested in diferent conditions: two retention tests (after 15 minutes and 3 days) and also transference test - after the second retention test (considering some changes in the maze, so that they needed to adapt their performances to obtain sucess in the task. All the data was analysed considering blocks of 5 trials, so that in acquisition phase there was 10 blocks of 5 trials, and in the tests (retention- 15 minutes and 3 days later - and transference) there 2 blocks of 5 trials each.
Sponsors
Sao Paulo University
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
35 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Chronic stroke, single ictus, MEMS at least 23 points, no comprehension disorder, right handed. Healthy group was matched by age and gender with the experimental group, so there was no key inclusion criteria because they wre age-gender matched to the experimental group.
Exclusion criteria
Aphasia, clinical instability, other neurological condition (i.e. Parkinson Disease, Alzheimer).
Outcome results
None listed