소뇌질환 환자들의 발 위치 제어 동작연습이 운동전이에 미치는 영향

Abstract

Impaired control of lower limb movement is often major causes of functional disturbances that affect patient’s independent activities in daily living. Although the ability to apply what has been learned to different or new environmental contexts is an important goal in motor rehabilitation of neurological patients, little is known about how distance control practice using lower limbs would influence their capability of motor transfer in patients with cerebellar ataxia. Twelve patients with cerebellar ataxia and 12 age- and gender-matched healthy controls participated in the study. Participants practiced horizontal reaching to targets with 3 distances (5cm, 10cm, and 15cm) with their right lower limbs and later performed transfer tests 1) with different distances (7cm and 13cm), and 2) with same distances at vertical direction. The results indicated that patient group showed a significant transfer effect when performing the task with novel distances, but not to different direction. These findings suggest that motor transfer for distance control of lower limb can happen through repeated practice in cerebellar patients. However, it appears that a task-specific principle needs to apply to facilitate the effectiveness of rehabilitation in their control of lower-limb movements.