Dataset Information

Thumbs up: Imagined hand movements counteract the adverse effects of post-surgical hand immobilization. Clinical, behavioral, and fMRI longitudinal observations.

ABSTRACT: Motor imagery (M.I.) training has been widely used to enhance motor behavior. To characterize the neural foundations of its rehabilitative effects in a pathological population we studied twenty-two patients with rhizarthrosis, a chronic degenerative articular disease in which thumb-to-fingers opposition becomes difficult due to increasing pain while the brain is typically intact. Before and after surgery, patients underwent behavioral tests to measure pain and motor performance and fMRI measurements of brain motor activity. After surgery, the affected hand was immobilized, and patients were enrolled in a M.I. training. The sample was split in those who had a high compliance with the program of scheduled exercises (T+, average compliance: 84%) and those with low compliance (T-, average compliance: 20%; cut-off point: 55%). We found that more intense M.I. training counteracts the adverse effects of immobilization reducing pain and expediting motor recovery. fMRI data from the post-surgery session showed that T+ patients had decreased brain activation in the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area (SMA); meanwhile, for the same movements, the T- patients exhibited a reversed pattern. Furthermore, in the post-surgery fMRI session, pain intensity was correlated with activity in the ipsilateral precentral gyrus and, notably, in the insular cortex, a node of the pain matrix. These findings indicate that the motor simulations of M.I. have a facilitative effect on recovery by cortical plasticity mechanisms and optimization of motor control, thereby establishing the rationale for incorporating the systematic use of M.I. into standard rehabilitation for the management of post-immobilization syndromes characteristic of hand surgery.

SUBMITTER: Gandola M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6506638 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Thumbs up: Imagined hand movements counteract the adverse effects of post-surgical hand immobilization. Clinical, behavioral, and fMRI longitudinal observations.

Gandola Martina M Zapparoli Laura L Saetta Gianluca G De Santis Antonio A Zerbi Alberto A Banfi Giuseppe G Sansone Valerio V Bruno Maurilio M Paulesu Eraldo E

NeuroImage. Clinical 20190425

Motor imagery (M.I.) training has been widely used to enhance motor behavior. To characterize the neural foundations of its rehabilitative effects in a pathological population we studied twenty-two patients with rhizarthrosis, a chronic degenerative articular disease in which thumb-to-fingers opposition becomes difficult due to increasing pain while the brain is typically intact. Before and after surgery, patients underwent behavioral tests to measure pain and motor performance and fMRI measurem ...[more]

PMID: 31071593

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Project description:Background:In humans, the thumb plays a crucial role in producing finger opposition movements. These movements form the basis of several activities of the hand. Hence these movements have been used to study phenomena like prehension, motor control, motor learning, etc. Although such tasks have been studied extensively, the relative contribution of the thumb vis-à-vis the fingers in finger opposition tasks is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the kinematics of thumb and fingers in a simple finger opposition task. Further, we quantified the relative contribution and the movement smoothness aspects and compared these between fingers and thumb. Methods:Eight, young healthy participants (four males and four females) were asked to perform a full finger to thumb opposition movement, where they were required to reach for different phalanges of the fingers. Position (X, Y and Z) of individual segments of the four fingers and the thumb were measured with reference to the wrist by a 16-sensor kinematics measurement system. Displacements and velocities were computed. An index, displacement ratio, that quantifies the relative contribution of thumb and fingers was computed from displacement data. Velocity data was used to quantify the smoothness of movement of thumb and fingers. Results:The Displacement Ratio showed that contribution of the thumb is higher than contribution of any other target finger or target phalanges, except for the distal phalanx of the index and middle fingers. Smoothness of movement of the thumb was higher than all the finger phalanges in all cases. Conclusion:We conclude that in the task considered (thumb opposition movements to different targets within the hand & fingers), the thumb made a greater relative contribution in terms of displacement ratio and also produced smoother movements. However, smoothness of thumb did not vary depending on the target. This suggests that the traditional notion of the thumb being a special digit when compared to other fingers is true at least for the opposition movements considered in this study.

Dataset Information

Thumbs up: Imagined hand movements counteract the adverse effects of post-surgical hand immobilization. Clinical, behavioral, and fMRI longitudinal observations.

Publications

Thumbs up: Imagined hand movements counteract the adverse effects of post-surgical hand immobilization. Clinical, behavioral, and fMRI longitudinal observations.

Similar Datasets

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