Internationale Zeitschrift für Physikalische Medizin und Rehabilitation
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Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Motor Lateralization after Stroke: A Case Series Study

Kotaro Takeda, Yukihiro Gomi and Hiroyuki Kato

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which allows non-invasive monitoring of cerebral activation, might be a useful tool to assess brain activity in stroke patients because it allows recording without imposing restraints on the subject’s posture. Previous NIRS studies on stroke patients have focused on brain activation in patients with mild impairment or full recovery, and there has been a lack of data on patients without recovery. In the present study, we compared the hand movement-related brain activation pattern and laterality balance of healthy subjects and of stroke patients with mild or moderate hemiparesis in the chronic phase. In normal subjects, predominantly contralateral activation was observed during unilateral hand grasping. Similar contralateral-predominant activation was observed during grasping with the unaffected hand in stroke patients, and during affected-hand grasping in patients with mild hemiparesis. However, abnormal activation patterns, i.e., bilaterally increased activation and ipsilateral-predominant activation, were observed during affected-hand grasping in patients with moderate hemiparesis. These findings suggest that differences in brain activation patterns in stroke patients are well detected by NIRS.