TY - JOUR
T1 - Brain Plasticity following Intensive Bimanual Therapy in Children with Hemiparesis
T2 - Preliminary Evidence
AU - Weinstein, Maya
AU - Myers, Vicki
AU - Green, Dido
AU - Schertz, Mitchell
AU - Shiran, Shelly I.
AU - Geva, Ronny
AU - Artzi, Moran
AU - Gordon, Andrew M.
AU - Fattal-Valevski, Aviva
AU - Ben Bashat, Dafna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Maya Weinstein et al.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Neuroplasticity studies examining children with hemiparesis (CH) have focused predominantly on unilateral interventions. CH also have bimanual coordination impairments with bimanual interventions showing benefits. We explored neuroplasticity following hand-Arm bimanual intensive therapy (HABIT) of 60 hours in twelve CH (6 females, mean age 11 ± 3.6 y). Serial behavioral evaluations and MR imaging including diffusion tensor (DTI) and functional (fMRI) imaging were performed before, immediately after, and at 6-week follow-up. Manual skills were assessed repeatedly with the Assisting Hand Assessment, Children's Hand Experience Questionnaire, and Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function. Beta values, indicating the level of activation, and lateralization index (LI), indicating the pattern of brain activation, were computed from fMRI. White matter integrity of major fibers was assessed using DTI. 11/12 children showed improvement after intervention in at least one measure, with 8/12 improving on two or more tests. Changes were retained in 6/8 children at follow-up. Beta activation in the affected hemisphere increased at follow-up, and LI increased both after intervention and at follow-up. Correlations between LI and motor function emerged after intervention. Increased white matter integrity was detected in the corpus callosum and corticospinal tract after intervention in about half of the participants. Results provide first evidence for neuroplasticity changes following bimanual intervention in CH.
AB - Neuroplasticity studies examining children with hemiparesis (CH) have focused predominantly on unilateral interventions. CH also have bimanual coordination impairments with bimanual interventions showing benefits. We explored neuroplasticity following hand-Arm bimanual intensive therapy (HABIT) of 60 hours in twelve CH (6 females, mean age 11 ± 3.6 y). Serial behavioral evaluations and MR imaging including diffusion tensor (DTI) and functional (fMRI) imaging were performed before, immediately after, and at 6-week follow-up. Manual skills were assessed repeatedly with the Assisting Hand Assessment, Children's Hand Experience Questionnaire, and Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function. Beta values, indicating the level of activation, and lateralization index (LI), indicating the pattern of brain activation, were computed from fMRI. White matter integrity of major fibers was assessed using DTI. 11/12 children showed improvement after intervention in at least one measure, with 8/12 improving on two or more tests. Changes were retained in 6/8 children at follow-up. Beta activation in the affected hemisphere increased at follow-up, and LI increased both after intervention and at follow-up. Correlations between LI and motor function emerged after intervention. Increased white matter integrity was detected in the corpus callosum and corticospinal tract after intervention in about half of the participants. Results provide first evidence for neuroplasticity changes following bimanual intervention in CH.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84948404169&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1155/2015/798481
DO - 10.1155/2015/798481
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
C2 - 26640717
AN - SCOPUS:84948404169
SN - 2090-5904
VL - 2015
JO - Neural Plasticity
JF - Neural Plasticity
M1 - 798481
ER -