Department of Rehabilitation, San Carlo Borromeo Hospital, Milan, Italy.
Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2011 Sep;47(3):417-25. Epub 2011 May 23.
Bilateral transfer of a motor skill is a phenomenon based on the observation that the performance of a skill with one hand can "teach" the same skill to the other hand.
In this study the ability of bilateral transfer to facilitate the motor skill of the paretic hand in patients that suffered a stroke was tested.
In a randomized controlled trial subjects were randomly assigned to either the test group or the control group.
The experiment was performed in a general hospital rehabilitation facility for inpatients and outpatients.
We studied 20 outpatients, who had their first stroke episode characterized by a brain lesion to a single hemisphere, at the end of their rehabilitation treatment. The criteria used for the selection were based on a physical examination, the time elapsed from the stroke and cognitive requirements.
The experiment consisted in training the healthy hand of each patient from the test group to execute the nine hole peg test 10 times a day, for three consecutive days, and then test the paretic hand with the same test and with bimanual tasks. The control group was not trained but went through the same analysis.
The homogeneity of the two groups has been proven. In the test group we found that the execution speed of the nine hole peg test with the paretic hand, after training the healthy hand, was on average 22.6% faster than the value recorded at baseline. The training had a positive effect on the execution of bimanual tasks. Meanwhile, no significant difference was found in the control group.
This is the first evidence that bilateral transfer of motor skills is present in patients that suffered a stroke, and that it improves the ability of the affected hand.
This observation could open the way to the development of a new approach for the rehabilitation of stroke patients.
双侧运动技能转移是一种基于观察的现象，即一只手的技能表现可以“教授”另一只手相同的技能。
本研究旨在测试双侧转移对中风患者患侧手运动技能的促进作用。
在一项随机对照试验中，受试者被随机分配到试验组或对照组。
该实验在一家综合医院的康复设施中进行，包括住院患者和门诊患者。
我们研究了 20 名门诊患者，他们在康复治疗结束时首次发生单侧大脑病变的中风，其选择标准基于体格检查、中风后时间和认知要求。
该实验包括每天训练试验组每位患者的健手进行 9 孔钉测试 10 次，连续 3 天，然后用相同的测试和双手任务测试患手。对照组未进行训练，但接受了相同的分析。
两组的同质性已得到证明。在试验组中，我们发现训练健手后，患手进行 9 孔钉测试的执行速度平均比基线记录快 22.6%。训练对双手任务的执行有积极影响。与此同时，对照组没有发现显著差异。
这是第一个证明中风患者存在运动技能双侧转移的证据，并且它可以提高患手的能力。
这一观察结果可能为中风患者的康复开辟新方法的途径。
