The addition of functional task-oriented mental practice to conventional physical therapy improves motor skills in daily functions after stroke

• Autor(a) principal: Santos-Couto-Paz,Clarissa C.
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Teixeira-Salmela,Luci F., Tierra-Criollo,Carlos J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-35552013000600564
• topic: mental practice; motor imagery; rehabilitation; physical therapy; learning

BACKGROUND: Mental practice (MP) is a cognitive strategy which may improve the acquisition of motor skills and functional performance of athletes and individuals with neurological injuries. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether an individualized, specific functional task-oriented MP, when added to conventional physical therapy (PT), promoted better learning of motor skills in daily functions in individuals with chronic stroke (13±6.5 months post-stroke). METHOD: Nine individuals with stable mild and moderate upper limb impairments participated, by employing an A1-B-A2 single-case design. Phases A1 and A2 included one month of conventional PT, and phase B the addition of MP training to PT. The motor activity log (MAL-Brazil) was used to assess the amount of use (AOU) and quality of movement (QOM) of the paretic upper limb; the revised motor imagery questionnaire (MIQ-RS) to assess the abilities in kinesthetic and visual motor imagery; the Minnesota manual dexterity test to assess manual dexterity; and gait speed to assess mobility. RESULTS: After phase A1, no significant changes were observed for any of the outcome measures. However, after phase B, significant improvements were observed for the MAL, AOU and QOM scores (p<0.0001), and MIQ-RS kinesthetic and visual scores (p=0.003; p=0.007, respectively). The significant gains in manual dexterity (p=0.002) and gait speed (p=0.019) were maintained after phase A2. CONCLUSIONS: Specific functional task-oriented MP, when added to conventional PT, led to improvements in motor imagery abilities combined with increases in the AOU and QOM in daily functions, manual dexterity, and gait speed.