Motor rehab therapy also may improve language skills in stroke patients

Therapy designed to improve arm function in stroke survivors also improved their language skills, according to a new study. The study includes the first data supporting a long-held clinical tenet that motor rehabilitation efforts can also cause changes in language.

Brain scientists have known for some time that brain structures supporting language and motor systems operate similarly. Neuroscientist Stephen Page of the University of Cincinnati hypothesized that patients with one-sided paralysis (hemiparesis) would exhibit language changes along with changes in arm motor function.

Dr. Page and his team studied five patients with chronic hemiparesis and aphasia. The patients received two arm function tests along with a two assessment function tests along with a standard language assessment before and after up to six weeks of weekday arm training. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) monitored affected arm and brain changes.

All five survivors showed improved motor and language abilities after motor therapy for upper extremity hemiparesis. The three subjects with the greatest as improvement on one of the arm tests also showed the most improvement on the language assessment. Researchers and task-related activity changes between pre- and post-fMRI scans revealed distinct brain activation patterns associated with high improvements on language and motor tests. Better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying functional recovery in stroke may lead to efficient therapy delivery, researchers said.

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