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Objective: People exhibiting post-stroke lateropulsion actively push their body across the midline to the more affected side and/or resist weight shift toward the less affected side. Despite its prevalence and associated negative rehabilitation outcomes, no clinical practice guidelines exist for the rehabilitation of post-stroke lateropulsion. We aimed to develop consensus-based clinical practice recommendations for managing post-stroke lateropulsion using an international expert panel., Design: This Delphi panel process conformed with Guidance on Conducting and Reporting Delphi Studies recommendations., Participants: Panel members had demonstrated clinical and/or scientific background in the rehabilitation of people with post-stroke lateropulsion., Main Measures: The process consisted of four electronic survey rounds. Round One consisted of 13 open questions. Subsequent rounds ascertained levels of agreement with statements derived from Round One. Consensus was defined a priori as ≥75% agreement (agree or strongly agree), or ≥70% agreement after excluding 'unsure' responses., Results: Twenty participants completed all four rounds. Consensus was achieved regarding a total of 119 recommendations for rehabilitation approaches and considerations for rehabilitation delivery, positioning, managing fear of falling and fatigue, optimal therapy dose, and discharge planning. Statements for which 'some agreement' (50%-74% agreement) was achieved and those for which recommendations remain to be clarified were recorded., Conclusions: These recommendations build on existing evidence to guide the selection of interventions for post-stroke lateropulsion. Future research is required to elaborate specific rehabilitation strategies, consider the impact of additional cognitive and perceptual impairments, describe positioning options, and detail optimal therapy dose for people with lateropulsion.

Background: To date, no gold standard exists for the assessment of unilateral spatial neglect (USN), a common post-stroke cognitive impairment, with limited sensitivity provided by currently used clinical assessments. Extensive research has shown that computer-based (CB) assessment can be more sensitive, but these have not been adopted by stroke services yet., Objective: We conducted a systematic review providing an overview of existing CB tests for USN to identify knowledge gaps and positive/negative aspects of different methods. This review also investigated the benefits and barriers of introducing CB assessment tasks to clinical settings and explored practical implications for optimizing future designs., Methodology: We included studies that investigated the efficacy of CB neglect assessment tasks compared to conventional methods in detecting USN for adults with brain damage. Study identification was conducted through electronic database searches (e.g., Scopus), using keywords and standardized terms combinations, without date limitation (last search: 08/06/2022). Literature review and study selection were based on prespecified inclusion criteria. The quality of studies was assessed with the quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies tool (Quadas-2). Data synthesis included a narrative synthesis, a table summarizing the evidence, and vote counting analysis based on a direction of effect plot., Results: A total of 28 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. According to our results, 13/28 studies explored CB versions of conventional tasks, 11/28 involved visual search tasks, and 5/28 other types of tasks. The vote counting analysis revealed that 17/28 studies found CB tasks had either equal or higher sensitivity than conventional methods and positive correlation with conventional methods (15/28 studies). Finally, 20/28 studies showed CB tasks effectively detected patients with USN within different patient groups and control groups (17/28)., Conclusions: The findings of this review provide practical implications for the implementation of CB assessment in the future, offering important information to enhance a variety of methodological issues. The study adds to our understanding of using CB tasks for USN assessment, exploring their efficacy and benefits compared to conventional methods, and considers their adoption in clinical environments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Giannakou, Lin and Punt.)

Background: The negative discrepancy between residual functional capacity and reduced use of the contralesional hand, frequently observed after a brain lesion, has been termed Learned Non-Use (LNU) and is thought to depend on the interaction of neuronal mechanisms during recovery and learning-dependent mechanisms., Objective: Albeit the LNU phenomenon is generally accepted to exist, currently, no transdisciplinary definition exists. Furthermore, although therapeutic approaches are implemented in clinical practice targeting LNU, no standardized diagnostic routine is described in the available literature. Our objective was to reach consensus regarding a definition as well as synthesize knowledge about the current diagnostic procedures., Methods: We used a structured group communication following the Delphi method among clinical and scientific experts in the field, knowledge from both, the work with patient populations and with animal models., Results: Consensus was reached regarding a transdisciplinary definition of the LNU phenomenon. Furthermore, the mode and strategy of the diagnostic process, as well as the sources of information and outcome parameters relevant for the clinical decision making, were described with a wide range showing the current lack of a consistent universal diagnostic approach., Conclusions: The need for the development of a structured diagnostic procedure and its implementation into clinical practice is emphasized. Moreover, it exists a striking gap between the prevailing hypotheses regarding the mechanisms underlying the LNU phenomenon and the actual evidence. Therefore, basic research is needed to bridge between bedside and bench and eventually improve clinical decision making and further development of interventional strategies beyond the field of stroke rehabilitation.

Background: The cerebellum and primary motor cortex (M1) are crucial to coordinated and accurate movements of the upper limbs. There is also appreciable evidence that these two structures exert somewhat divergent influences upon proximal versus distal upper limb control. Here, we aimed to differentially regulate the contribution of the cerebellum and M1 to proximal and distal effectors during motor adaptation, with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). For this, we employed tasks that promote similar motor demands, but isolate whole arm from hand/finger movements, in order to functionally segregate the hierarchy of upper limb control., Methods: Both young and older adults took part in a visuomotor rotation task; where they adapted to a 60° visuomotor rotation using either a hand-held joystick (requiring finger/hand movements) or a 2D robotic manipulandum (requiring whole-arm reaching movements), while M1, cerebellar or sham tDCS was applied., Results: We found that cerebellar stimulation improved adaptation performance when arm movements were required to complete the task, while in contrast stimulation of M1 enhanced adaptation during hand and finger movements only. This double-dissociation was replicated in an independent group of older adults, demonstrating that the behaviour remains intact in ageing., Conclusions: These results suggest that stimulation of distinct motor areas can selectively improve motor adaptation in the proximal and distal upper limb. This also highlights new ways in which tDCS might be best applied to achieve reliable rehabilitation of upper limb motor deficits., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that no competing interest exist., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although the reliability of pain drawings (PDs) has been confirmed in people with chronic pain, there is a lack of evidence about the validity of the PD, that is, does the PD accurately represent the pain experience of the patient?, Objectives: We investigate whether people with chronic neck pain (CNP) can recognize their own PD to support the validity of the PD in reporting the experience of pain. Moreover, we examined the association between their ability to recognize their own PD with their levels of pain intensity and disability and extent of psychosocial and somatic features., Study Design: Experimental., Setting: University Laboratory., Methods: Individuals with CNP completed their PD on a digital body chart, which was then automatically modified with specific dimensions using a novel software, providing an objective range of distortion and eliminating errors, which could potentially occur in manually controlled visual-subjective based methods. Following a 10-minute break listening to music, a series of 20 PDs were presented to each patient in a random order, with only 2 being their original PD. For each PD, the patients rated its likeliness to their own original PD on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 representing "this is my pain.", Results: Overall, the patients rated their original PD with a median score of 92% similarity, followed by 91.8% and 89.5% similarity when presented with a PD scaled down to 75% and scaled up by 150% of the original size, respectively; these scores were not significantly different to the ratings given for their original PD. The PD with horizontal translation by 40 pixels (8%) and vertical translation by 70 pixels (12.8%) were rated as the most dissimilar to their original PD; these scores were significantly different to their original PD scores. The Spearman correlation coefficient revealed a significant negative association between their ability to recognize their original PD and their Modified Somatic Perceptions Questionnaire scores., Limitations: The patients in the study presented with relatively mild CNP, and the results may not be generalized to those with more severe symptoms., Conclusions: People with CNP are generally able to identify their own PD but that their ability to recognize their original PD is negatively correlated with the extent of somatic awareness., Key Words: Chronic pain, perception, pain drawings, somatic awareness.

Background: Intensive robot-assisted training of the upper limb after stroke can reduce motor impairment, even at the chronic stage. However, the effectiveness of practice for recovery depends on the selection of the practised movements. We hypothesized that rehabilitation can be optimized by selecting the movements to be practiced based on the trainee's performance profile., Methods: We present a novel principle ('steepest gradients') for performance-based selection of movements. The principle is based on mapping motor performance across a workspace and then selecting movements located at regions of the steepest transition between better and worse performance. To assess the benefit of this principle we compared the effect of 15 sessions of robot-assisted reaching training on upper-limb motor impairment, between two groups of people who have moderate-to-severe chronic upper-limb hemiparesis due to stroke. The test group (N = 7) received steepest gradients-based training, iteratively selected according to the steepest gradients principle with weekly remapping, whereas the control group (N = 9) received a standard "centre-out" reaching training. Training intensity was identical., Results: Both groups showed improvement in Fugl-Meyer upper-extremity scores (the primary outcome measure). Moreover, the test group showed significantly greater improvement (twofold) compared to control. The score remained elevated, on average, for at least 4 weeks although the additional benefit of the steepest-gradients -based training diminished relative to control., Conclusions: This study provides a proof of concept for the superior benefit of performance-based selection of practiced movements in reducing upper-limb motor impairment due to stroke. This added benefit was most evident in the short term, suggesting that performance-based steepest-gradients training may be effective in increasing the rate of initial phase of practice-based recovery; we discuss how long-term retention may also be improved., Trial Registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN65226825 , registered 12 June 2018 - Retrospectively registered.

Background: Chronic upper limb motor impairment is a common outcome of stroke. Therapeutic training can reduce motor impairment. Recently, a growing interest in evaluating motor training provided by robotic assistive devices has emerged. Robot-assisted therapy is attractive because it provides a means of increasing practice intensity without increasing the workload of physical therapists. However, movements practised through robotic assistive devices are commonly pre-defined and fixed across individuals. More optimal training may result from individualizing the selection of the trained movements based on the individual's impairment profile. This requires quantitative assessment of the degree of the motor impairment prior to training, in relevant movement tasks. However, standard clinical measures for profiling motor impairment after stroke are often subjective and lack precision. We have developed a novel robot-mediated method for systematic and fine-grained mapping (or profiling) of individual performance across a wide range of planar arm reaching movements. Here we describe and demonstrate this mapping method and its utilization for individualized training. We also present a novel principle for the individualized selection of training movements based on the performance maps., Methods and Results: To demonstrate the utility of our method we present examples of 2D performance maps produced from the kinetic and kinematics data of two individuals with stroke-related upper limb hemiparesis. The maps outline distinct regions of high motor impairment. The procedure of map-based selection of training movements and the change in motor performance following training is demonstrated for one participant., Conclusions: The performance mapping method is feasible to produce (online or offline). The 2D maps are easy to interpret and to be utilized for selecting individual performance-based training. Different performance maps can be easily compared within and between individuals, which potentially has diagnostic utility.