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Structural and functional brain changes related to acute and chronic exercise effects in children, adolescents and young adults
Published in Romain Meeusen, Sabine Schaefer, Phillip Tomporowski, Richard Bailey, Physical Activity and Educational Achievement, 2017
Claudia Voelcker-Rehage, Claudia Niemann, Lena Hübner
As compared to cognitive skills, less is known about the relationship between chronic engagement in physical activity and performance in motor tasks. No controlled study so far has investigated the effects of chronic physical activity on motor learning processes in children or young adults. For example, a study with older adults showed that an 8-week aerobic fitness intervention led to improved performance in a finger-tracking task, which might be explained by enhanced information processing (Bakken et al., 2001). Also animal studies showed that aerobic exercise interventions induced changes in the motor cortex and other areas involved in motor function (cerebellum, basal ganglia, substantia nigra) expressed by enhanced oxidative metabolism (McCloskey, Adamo, & Anderson, 2001; Vissing, Andersen, & Diemer, 1996), hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity (van Praag, Shubert, Zhao, & Gage, 2005). These findings indicate that regular exercise not only modulates brain areas involved in cognitive processing, but also brain regions that are active during motor performance. Research is needed to confirm these results in young humans as findings could have a great impact for certain target groups, for example, in the school setting.
Management of residual physical deficits
Published in Mark J. Ashley, David A. Hovda, Traumatic Brain Injury, 2017
Velda L. Bryan, David W. Harrington, Michael G. Elliott
Rehabilitation of physical function requires maximal repetition for change in the neuronal circuitry. For example, Carey et al. showed that significant cortical reorganization and functional improvement occurred when individuals experiencing poor grasp-and-release as a result of stroke performed more than 100 repetitions of a finger-tracking exercises per day.93 A different study showed that patients with TBI who received more than 160 additional repetitions of sit-to-stand and step-ups had a larger improvement than those patients who did not receive additional repetitions.94 In animal studies, structural neurologic changes followed an induced stroke to the hand area in nonhuman primates when the subject performed 400 to 600 reps per day of a fine-motor task.95–97 It is important that clinicians consider the number of repetitions a person must complete to maximize the adaptive plasticity that leads to greater independence. This information demonstrates that density of treatment and opportunities for challenge extend beyond a therapy session. For example, residential treatment in which a patient is challenged to complete all ADLs, engage in home exercises, and integrate into the community offers environmental challenges.
Objective assessment for open surgical suturing training by finger tracking can discriminate novices from experts
Published in Medical Education Online, 2023
Vera Hillemans, Xander van de Mortel, Otmar Buyne, Bas H. Verhoeven, Sanne M.B.I. Botden
In previous research, we showed that a low-cost tracking tool has potential to be used in open surgical simulated tasks for the tracking of finger movements [21]. This technique has the potential to overcome the need for expert observation, while remaining cost-effective. Therefore, this assessment tool could be useful in the training of open surgical skills. This tracking software has been used in MIS training and has shown be able to discriminate between expertise levels (construct validity), however this has not been evaluated in the use for open surgical training. Prior to using this system as a training device, it is important to demonstrate a good construct validity. The aim of this study is to investigate the ability to discriminate between expertise levels of this low-cost, broadly accessible technique of finger tracking in simple open surgical suturing tasks.
Application of the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) in pediatric oncology patients: A multicenter study
Published in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 2020
Daniele Panzeri, Micol Sara Bettinelli, Emilia Biffi, Francesca Rossi, Chiara Pellegrini, Nicoletta Orsini, Veronica Recchiuti, Maura Massimino, Geraldina Poggi
The SARA shows a high inter-rater reliability of total score (intraclass correlation coefficients, ICC = 0.97) and items related to walking, standing, sitting position, alternating hand movements, sliding on the heel. In contrast, items related to finger tracking, nose-finger test and language are less satisfactory, with an ICC <0.80.6 A study on various assessment scales of ataxia, and particularly on the SARA, which considered 64 cases of non-progressive ataxia, showed that, the SARA shows good reliability and validity for both total scores and individual item scores for sporadic cases of ataxia (including those caused by brain tumors).9 According to Michel et al., the SARA is suitable as a motor assessment scale for children with an acquired brain injury.11