NCT03608527

Adaptive Plasticity Following Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis

The Impact of Motor Rehabilitation on the Dynamic Properties of the Brain: Towards the Individual Tailoring of Therapeutic Interventions in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (actual)
• Sponsor: Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Motor learning can induce significant changes in the human brain through neural plasticity processes, which play a crucial role in the brain functional reorganization in response to external stimuli and/or to pathological conditions. For example, people with multiple sclerosis present motor deficits often associated with cerebral activity alteration. However, whether these brain activation changes contribute to or protect against motor performance deficits still needs to be determined. Moreover, rehabilitation protocols could be designed to obtain efficient brain adaptation to preserve patients' outcome, but consistent data on the real efficacy of rehabilitative procedures are lacking, in particular concerning the rehabilitation effect on brain networks. Therefore, this project focuses on the degree to which imaging measures of functional brain activity can give new hints on the effects of motor rehabilitative protocols in multiple sclerosis patients' performance. Particularly, the investigator's aim is to investigate the effects of upper limb rehabilitation, focused on hand motor function, and the correlation between motor performance and functional magnetic resonance data.

Conditions

• Multiple Sclerosis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Voluntary-based upper limb motor rehabilitation	Exercises for neuromuscular control to improve proprioceptive sensibility, muscle strength, stability and coordination of the upper limbs, mainly including task-oriented movements with the goal to improve activities of daily living. Both proximal and distal muscles are involved, in actions such as grasping wooden cubes of different sizes, pinching, reaching targets displayed in front of the patient, and doing patchwork or paper mandala.
BEHAVIORAL	Passive upper limb mobilization	Passive mobilization delivered by a physical therapist of shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers without detectable muscle activity.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-09-09
• Primary completion: 2014-12-22
• Completion: 2015-03-04
• First posted: 2018-08-01
• Last updated: 2018-08-01