Laura Alice Santos de Oliveira

• Professor (Full) at Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ)

Background: Little is discussed about the effectiveness and systematization of progressions of difficulty during balance exercises. Exercise progression provides continuous stimulation and assists physical therapists in offering challenges to patients. Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of an exercise program with systematic progression...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Particular pain features, such as pain interference, neuropathic-like symptoms, and central sensitization (CS) symptoms may be present in patients with Chikungunya fever and lead to functional limitations. The present study aimed to assess the association between pain characteristics and the disability in participants affe...

Falls in hospitalized older adults are of concern and, despite the availability of fall risk assessment methods and knowledge about factors associated with falls, their validity and agreement remain poorly investigated. In a prospective study, we enrolled 102 hospitalized older adults (median [P25-P75]) 67 (64-73) years, 52 [51%] men, length of sta...

Background The understanding of human postural control has advanced with the introduction of optimization process modeling. These models, however, only provide control parameters, rather than analytical descriptors of optimization processes. Here, we use a newly developed direct (pattern) search algorithm to investigate changes in postural optimiza...

Background: Postural instability with an excessive body sway is a disabling manifestation in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3. Whether the larger body sway reflects distinct movement strategies for postural control remains uncertain. This study compared the control of postural stability of people with spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 with healthy subjec...

Aim To investigate the correlation of lower-limb muscle function with clinical status, balance, and quality of life in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). Methods Twenty-five participants were included. Outcome measures were assessed through scales and questionnaires. Quadriceps muscle function was assessed through a maximal isometric volunta...

Introduction: Spinocerebellar ataxia 3 (SCA3) is a hereditary disease associated with progressive cerebellar and extracerebellar degeneration. Although there is no effective therapy for SCA3, some of its symptoms can be relieved with symptomatic treatment. Identifying the presence of this signs in patients may contribute to their clinical managemen...

RESUMO A assimetria na distribuição do peso corporal (DPC) é um achado comum após um acidente vascular cerebral. Embora a posturografia seja considerada o padrão-ouro para a detecção da assimetria da DPC, exige equipamentos e conhecimentos específicos, limitando seu uso na prática clínica. Por outro lado, a Escala de Avaliação da Simetria e Transfe...

Neuromuscular adaptations are well-reported in stroke survivors. The death of motor neurons and the reinnervation of residual muscle fibers by surviving motor neurons, for example, seem to explain the increased density of muscle units after stroke. It is, however, unknown whether reinnervation takes place locally or extensively within the muscle. H...

Background: Pain is a common symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD). Objectives: to analyze the relationship between pain and motor dysfunction in PD individuals. Methods: 54 PD individuals were screened [Hoehn & Yahr=2.5(1-4); [median(min-max)], 66(44-85) years of age in the ON period of the anti-Parkinson medication. Pain (King's Parkinson's di...

Background/Aims Brachial plexus injuries impair functionality, interfere with the performance of activities and affect participation in social events, thus decreasing an individual's quality of life. In cases where there is a total loss of muscular strength, complete rehabilitation is challenging. Motor irradiation is a basic proprioceptive neuromu...

Background One of the most disabling problems in Parkinson disease (PD) is gait impairment. Noninvasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), have been introduced as a therapeutic alternative for coping with PD motor problems. However, the effects of tDCS on gait performance in PD have not yet been fu...

Background and Purpose The motor impairments related to gait and balance have a huge impact on the life of individuals with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). Here, the aim was to assess the possibility of retraining gait, improving cardiopulmonary capacity, and challenging balance during gait in SCA using a partial body weight support (BWS) and a tread...

Aims: This study proposed an exercise programme including strengthening and task-oriented training focussing on weight-bearing symmetry and examined its feasibility and safety for chronic stroke patients. Additionally, gait, balance and health status were assessed after the exercise programme implementation. Methodology: Fourteen individuals partic...

Objective: The main objective of this study was to review the literature to identify reference values for angles and distances of body segments related to upright posture in healthy adult women with the Postural Assessment Software (PAS/SAPO). Methods: Electronic databases (BVS, PubMed, SciELO and Scopus) were assessed using the following descri...

The motor system is recruited whenever one executes an action as well as when one observes the same action being executed by others. Although it is well established that emotion modulates the motor system, the effect of observing other individuals acting in an emotional context is particularly elusive. The main aim of this study was to investigate...

The basic underpinnings of homeostatic behavior include interacting with positive items and avoiding negative ones. As the planning aspects of goal-directed actions can be inferred from their movement features, we investigated the kinematics of interacting with emotion-laden stimuli. Participants were instructed to grasp emotion-laden stimuli and b...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain is a severe world health problem, making its management a challenge for health professionals. The study of pain has been superficially addressed during health professionals' qualification, reflecting in ineffective clinical practices. This study aimed at evaluating the level of neurophysiologic pain knowledge of phys...

Objective: To investigate whether a sensorimotor deficit of the upper limb following a brachial plexus injury (BPI) affects the upright balance. Design: Eleven patients with a unilateral BPI and 11 healthy subjects were recruited. The balance assessment included the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), the number of feet touches on the ground while performing...

In Parkinson’s disease (PD), a complex neurologic disorder, occurs dopamine depletion by lesions of the neurons that produce it, causing motor and cognitive impairments. The four main symptoms that affect individuals with PD are resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability. These changes may increase the risk of falls and bring i...

Objective. The present study aimed to characterize the functional capacity, disease status, cardiorespiratory fitness and quality of life of a sample of patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). The associations between these measures were also investigated. Methods. Fourteen individuals with SCA were included. Cardiorespiratory fitness was asses...

[Purpose] Spinocerebellar ataxia consists of a group of autosomal dominant disorders that cause progressive degeneration, mainly in the cerebellum and its connections. Falls, which are a significant concern of this condition, reduce patients’ mobility, deteriorate their health and have physical and social consequences. The aim of this study was to...

In this study we investigate to what extent the effects of motor imagery on postural sway are constrained by movement features and the subject's imagery ability. Twenty-three subjects were asked to imagine three movements using the kinesthetic modality: rising on tiptoes, whole-body forward reaching, and whole-body lateral reaching. After each task...

Evolutionary theories posit that emotions prime organisms for action. This study examined whether corticospinal excitability (CSE) is modulated by the emotional valence of a to-be-grasped stimulus. CSE was estimated based on the amplitude of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and recorded on the fi...

La ataxia espinocerebelosa (SCA) es una afección hereditaria que cursa con la degeneración progresiva del cerebelo y de sus vías, lo que causa alteraciones del equilibrio y de otras funciones. El resultado de los abordajes de la fisioterapia en el tratamiento de la SCA y la cualidad metodológica de estos estudios fueron analizados. Se investigó si...

It is well established that the mental simulation of actions involves visual and/or somato-motor representations of those imagined actions. In order to investigate if the total absence of vision affects the brain activity associated to the retrieval of motor representations, we recorded the readiness potential (RP), a marker of motor preparation, p...

Contemporary theories of motor control propose that motor planning involves the prediction of the consequences of actions. These predictions include the associated costs as well as the rewarding nature of movements' outcomes. Within the estimation of these costs and rewards would lie the valence, that is, the pleasantness or unpleasantness of a giv...

For survival, humans are continuously vigilant for signs of danger. Equally important, but less studied, is our ability to detect and respond to safety cues. The trait of positive affect may be a key component determining human variability in safety detection. Here we investigate autonomic and self-report reactivity to pictures of mutilated bodies,...

INTRODUCCIÓN: El artículo presenta la adaptación transcultural al portugués del instrumento Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire, Self-Report Version (PDEQ-SRV), para rastrear y cuantificar los fenómenos disociativos peritraumáticos. MÉTODOS: Se hicieron dos traducciones y sus respectivas re-traducciones, evaluación de la equivalenc...