CORTICAL ACTIVITY OF THE SENSORIMOTOR SYSTEM IN PARTICIPANTS WITH CHRONIC ANKLE INSTABILITY

1 online resource (205 pages) : PDF

2017

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI) exhibit a wide variety of sensorimotor deficits. These include impairments in feed-forward sensorimotor control (i.e. motor planning) as well as feed-back sensorimotor control, which pertains to refining ongoing movements. Researchers have recently begun to investigate the underlying cause of these impairments, identifying a decreased level of excitability in the primary motor cortex. However, it remains unclear if these constraints reflect large scale changes in sensorimotor control, and if they can be modified through therapeutic intervention. Therefore, our aim was to determine if impairments in feed-forward and feed-back sensorimotor control could be established in CAI patients using electroencephalography (EEG), and if these are improved through balance training. In Chapter 3, we compare EEG-derived measures of feed-forward and feed-back sensorimotor control between CAI patients and matched controls during a voluntary leaning task. In chapter 4, we assess feed-forward cortical activity during a dual-to-single-limb transition (DSLT), a task in which CAI patients have altered neuromuscular control. In chapter 5, we assess whether or not completing 4-weeks of an established balance training program can improve cortical measures of sensorimotor function in these patients. Along with traditional measures of balance, we assessed feed-forward cortical activity during a DSLT task before and after balance training. We did not identify any differences in EEG measures between CAI patients and uninjured controls during either task. Similarly, balance training did not result in differences in feed-forward activity, however links were established between balance improvements (i.e. feed-back sensorimotor control) and feed-forward cortical activity.

doctoral dissertations

Biology
Kinesiology
Neurosciences

Ph.D.

Biology

Wikstrom, Erik
Hubbard-Turner, Tricia

Thomas Fenwick, Abbey
Bost, Kenneth
Clemens, Mark
Dreau, Didier
Faust, Mark

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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Burcal_uncc_0694D_11499

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:883