Article

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with balance deficits resulting
in falls and impaired mobility. Although rehabilitation has been recommended to
address these balance deficits, the extent to which people with MS can learn and
retain improvements in postural responses is unknown. AIM: To determine the
ability of people with MS to improve postural control with surface perturbation
training. METHODS: A total of 24 patients with mild MS and 14 age-matched
controls underwent postural control training with a set pattern of continuous,
forward-backward, sinusoidal, and surface translations provided by a force
platform. Postural control was then tested the following day for retention. The
primary outcome measures were the relative phase and center-of-mass (CoM) gain
between the body CoM and the platform motion. RESULTS: People with MS
demonstrated similar improvements in acquiring and retaining changes in the
temporal control of the CoM despite significant deficits in postural motor
performance at the baseline. Both MS and control groups learned to anticipate the
pattern of forward-backward perturbations, so body CoM shifted from a phase-lag
(age-matched controls [CS] = -7.1 +/- 1.3; MS = -12.9 +/- 1.0) toward a
phase-lead (CS = -0.7 +/- 1.8; MS = -6.1 +/- 1.4) relationship with the surface
oscillations. However, MS patients were not able to retain the changes in the
spatial control of the CoM acquired during training. CONCLUSIONS: People with MS
have the capacity to improve use of a feed-forward postural strategy with
practice and retain the learned behavior for temporal not spatial control of CoM,
despite their significant postural response impairments.
CI - (c) The Author(s) 2015.
- SEP

Langue : ANGLAIS