Abstract

CASTRO-MEDINA, Karen; PEREZ-PAEZ, Mayra; MOSCOSO-ALVARADO, Fabiola  and  TANAKA, Clarice. Transfer of motor learning in stroke: a case report series. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2015, vol.63, n.2, pp.315-320. ISSN 0120-0011.  https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v63n2.48206.

Background. Rehabilitation for patients is fundamentally a process of relearning, which improves the acquisition of new skills and the adaptation or refinement of previously learned abilities. Despite this knowledge, few studies describe motor learning after stroke and its relevance in recovery and rehabilitation processes. Objective. To describe the transfer of motor learning in patients with stroke history after a treatment with functional reeducation procedures. Materials and methods. A descriptive study of series of cases was conducted, with two patients that received outpatient physiotherapy treatment with the principles of functional reeducation at the Hospital de las Clinicas in the São Paulo University (Brazil) between August and October of 2013. The transfer of motor learning was determined according to results in the functional balance test (Mini-BESTest). The test was applied before and after the treatment, and the results were compared to establish improvement percentage. Results. In the two cases, clinical improvement was observed during the performance of the Mini-BESTest with an improvement percentage between 21% and 41%. Conclusion. Few research studies report the preservation of motor learning in patients with history of stroke. This study reported that two patients were able to transfer motor ability trained on the treatment to a similar untrained task (balance) based on the clinical improvements of motor performance in the applied test.

Keywords : Stroke; Learning; Transfer (Psychology); Postural balance.

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