Compensatory Trunk Movements in Naturalistic Reaching and Manipulation Tasks in Chronic Stroke Survivors

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 aut...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied biomechanics 2021-06, Vol.37 (3), p.215-223
Main Authors: Jayasinghe, Shanie A L, Wang, Rui, Gebara, Rani, Biswas, Subir, Ranganathan, Rajiv
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arm
Biomechanical Phenomena
Elbow
Humans
Motor ability
Movement
Stroke
Stroke Rehabilitation
Survivors
Torso
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1065-8483
1543-2688
DOI:10.1123/jab.2020-0090