Temporal and spatial control following bilateral versus unilateral training 2008

Human Movement Science 27 (2008) 749–758

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Temporal and spatial control following bilateral versus unilateral training
S. McCombe Waller a,*, W. Liu a,b, J. Whitall a a University of Maryland Baltimore, School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science,
100 Penn Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA b Walsh University, Division of Physical Therapy, North Canton, USA

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Article history:
Available online 17 July 2008

PsycINFO classification:
2330
3380
Keywords:
Bilateral and unilateral training
Spatial motor control
Temporal motor control

abstract
Principles of motor control and learning such as bilateral coordination and task-specificity, are increasingly incorporated in the design of upper extremity rehabilitation protocols for stroke survivors. Yet most studies investigating the efficacy of new protocols report composite scores of standardized tests, such as the FuglMeyer Upper Extremity test (FM) and the Wolf Motor Arm Test, rather than determining how the motor control and coordination of arm movements has changed. Here we present a sub-study of a larger randomized controlled trial comparing a bilateral and unilateral training protocol where participants were assessed on bilateral and unilateral arm reaching. Eligible participants for the arm reaching analysis were 9 (FM = 37) and 9 (FM = 34) in Bilateral
Arm Training with Rhythmic Auditory Cueing (BATRAC) and Dose
Matched Therapeutic Exercises (DMTE), respectively. Participants undertook 18 sessions of training for 6 weeks with 20 min of active training per session. For bilateral arm reaching, participants after
BATRAC were faster, with increased peak acceleration, fewer movement units, and smoother hand paths for each arm. The
BATRAC training group showed greater improvements with training than the DMTE group during