Assessment of Upper-Limb Sensorimotor Function of Subacute Stroke Patients Using Visually Guided Reaching:

Objective. Using robotic technology, we examined the ability of a visually guided reaching task to assess the sensorimotor function of patients with stroke. Methods. Ninety-one healthy participants and 52 with subacute stroke of mild to moderate severity (26 with left- and 26 with right-affected body sides) performed an unassisted reaching task using the KINARM robot. Each participant was assessed using 12 movement parameters that were grouped into 5 attributes of sensorimotor control. Results. A number of movement parameters individually identified a large number of stroke participants as being different from 95% of the controls—most notably initial direction error, which identified 81% of left-affected patients. We also found interlimb differences in performance between the arms of those with stroke compared with controls. For example, whereas only 31% of left-affected participants showed differences in reaction time with their affected arm, 54% showed abnormal interlimb differences in reaction time. Go...