Motor Learning Principles in Stroke Rehabilitation: A Trial Comparing Task-Specific Vs Conventional Therapy

Abstract

Stroke is a significant cause of long-term motor disability with a significant need to develop effective stroke rehabilitation as a mode of functional recovery. It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that motor learning-based interventions, especially task-specific training, have the potential to increase neuroplasticity but controlled clinical evidence is lacking. The current research compares and contrasts the outcomes of the task-specific therapy and traditional therapy in accelerating the motor recovery in adult human patients with ischemic stroke. Adult human participants clinically diagnosed with ischemic stroke were randomly allocated into either task-specific therapy, conventional therapy or control group. The duration of rehabilitation was four weeks and motor outcome measures were determined by standardized clinical motor assessment tools that determined ability to reach and balance and coordinate, muscle strength and neurological functioning. The findings indicate that, task-specific therapy leads to much more improvement in motor performance, coordination, strength, and skill retention as compared to conventional therapy and no-treatment controls. The results reported have offered experimental proof to the use of motor learning concepts in stroke rehabilitation and the translational importance of task-specific training to maximize post-stroke motor recovery.