Perception of weight-bearing and effort distribution during sit-to-stand in individuals post-stroke

The objectives were to assess whether individuals who are poststroke can rate their perceived knee effort distribution during sit-to-stand tasks in various foot positions, to quantify their errors of perception and to compare these to their errors in weight-bearing perception. Weight-bearing distribution was assessed in hemiparetic participants (N = 19) using a force platform. Electromyographic (EMG) data normalized to maximal EMG values were used to quantify knee effort distribution. The difference between participants' real weight bearing and knee effort and the perceived values rated on a visual analog scale defined their errors of weight-bearing and effort perception. The perception of effort and weight bearing, and the errors therein, were compared among the four foot positions. Participants perceived only the changes induced by the different foot positions on their weightbearing distribution, not on their knee effort distribution, and they made greater perception errors with the knee effort distribution than with the weight-bearing distribution.