A 4-year-old who had never used his bad arm can now play baseball, batting with both hands and using a specially adapted glove on his more impaired hand.
Donor site complications including graft rejection, graft failure, infection, impaired hand manipulation, and swelling of hand were not noted in any patient.
atDCS and sham tDCS (stDCS) were applied to the primary motor cortex (M1) contralateral to the more severely impaired hand for 20 min in a double-blinded crossover design.
Excitatory and inhibitory neural circuitry within the primary motor cortex (M1) influence the neural output directed to the hand [1], and abnormalities in such circuitry may underlie impaired hand control in patient populations [2] [5].
Targeting BA 5 via cTBS and iTBS is a novel mechanism to powerfully modulate activity within M1 and may provide an avenue for investigating hand control in healthy populations and modifying impaired hand function in clinical populations.
Besides age-related changes in the sensory motor system, it remains unclear how environmental factors such as declining physical activity associated with aging [13], [14] and sedentary lifestyles contribute to impaired hand function [15], [16].
Our inclusion criteria for RA and HOA did not include impaired hand function.
In general, people with arthritis have an impaired hand strength compared with healthy subjects [ 17, 21, 31, 33].
Movement skill difficulties often reported are impaired timing [ 12], impaired hand dexterity/fine motor coordination [ 13], "motor overflow" and neurological soft signs [ 10, 14, 15].
