Figure 1.
Description of the stimulation and training procedures.
Top: Montage of electrodes for repetitive electric stimulation (rES) of the finger tips. Bottom: Eight tasks of the arm ability training (AAT) used for training of the left non-dominant hand: aiming, tapping, crossing, turning coins, labyrinth, bolts and nuts, placing small objects, placing large objects.
Figure 2.
Overview on the performance changes over training time.
Left: Average percentual improvement in the AAT-tasks plotted for the trained left and the untrained right hand. Means are provided with standard errors. Right: Detailed absolute increase of performance of the AAT tasks over ten consecutive days for each type of movement trained.
Figure 3.
Somatosensory findings on changes over time.
A. Visualization of the fMRI-map of the BA 1 activation (ROI indicated with a white line) of the index finger stimulation before (left) and after (right) 2 weeks of intervention (combination of rES and active training). The representational map is decreased in size after two weeks of training although spatial acuity increase was positively associated with increase of pinch grip performance as indicated below. B. The correlation of spatial resolution and motor performance of the AAT task placing small objects was r = 0.67; P<0.01.
Table 1.
Parameters of the clusters found in the contralateral (right hemispheric) BA1 for the pre- and the post-examination.