Shoulder and elbow muscle activity during fully supported trajectory tracking in people who have had a stroke

Abstract

An inability to perform tasks involving reaching is a common problem for stroke patients. Knowledge of how stroke participants’ upper limb muscle activation patterns firstly differ from neurologically intact participants and secondly change in response to an intervention will provide an insight into mechanisms associated with recovery of upper limb function.

In this study five chronic stroke participants undertook nine tracking tasks in which trajectory (orientation and length), duration, speed and resistance to movement were varied. The participants’ forearm was supported using a hinged arm-holder, which constrained their hand to move in a two dimensional plane. EMG signals were recorded from triceps, biceps, anterior deltoid, upper, middle and lower trapezius and pectoralis major prior to and after an intervention. Three participants received eighteen one hour treatment sessions and two attended seven additional sessions. During the intervention participants performed a similar range of tracking tasks with the addition of responsive electrical stimulation to their triceps muscle.

Pre intervention, timing of peak activity and amplitude of EMG of all stroke participants differed from neurologically intact participants. Post intervention statistically significant changes were observed towards normal in timing, amplitude and co-activation patterns.

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Identifiers

ORCID for A.M. Hughes: orcid.org/0000-0002-3958-8206

ORCID for J. Burridge: orcid.org/0000-0003-3497-6725

ORCID for P. Lewin: orcid.org/0000-0002-3299-2556

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