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Assessing visually guided reaching in people with multiple sclerosis with and without self-reported upper limb
Darrin O Wijeyaratnam1, Thomas Edwards1, Lara A Pilutti2,3
1School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Plos One
|January 21, 2022
Summary
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) exhibit altered movement patterns during visually guided reaching tasks, even those without self-reported upper limb impairment. These findings highlight subtle motor control deficits in MS patients.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Human Movement Science
Background:
- Goal-directed actions rely on integrated sensory, cognitive, and motor systems.
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) can impair these systems, leading to movement deficits.
- Characterizing upper limb function in people with MS (PwMS) often relies on subjective reports or clinical scales.
Purpose of the Study:
- To objectively characterize visually guided reaching performance in PwMS.
- To compare reaching kinematics between PwMS with and without self-reported upper limb impairment and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Thirty-six participants (12 MS-R, 12 MS-NR, 12 CTL) performed a visually guided reaching task in a virtual environment.
- Participants reached towards targets using a cursor representing their hand.
- Reaching movements were analyzed for kinematic parameters.
Main Results:
- All participants successfully reached targets, but PwMS displayed more atypical reaching profiles.
- The MS-R group showed greater variability in movement initiation and completion times compared to controls.
- The MS-NR group exhibited less consistent performance than controls, despite no significant difference in other metrics.
Conclusions:
- PwMS, regardless of self-reported upper limb impairment, demonstrate deficits in motor planning and/or control.
- Compensatory strategies may underlie observed movement deficits in PwMS with self-reported impairment.
