Rhythmic movements after a stroke: A different motor primitive should receive a dedicated training

Abstract

This paper reports two experiments that we recently conducted. The first established that upper-limb rhythmic and discrete movements are differentially affected after a stroke, reinforcing the statement that these two movements form two fundamentally different motor primitives. The second focused on the development of a specific robot-assisted therapy for rhythmic movements, targeting assistance-as-needed. We claim that rhythmic movements deserve such as specific therapy, since they are part of the daily motor repertoire and belong to a different class of movements as the discrete ones.