Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of vibratory stimulation-induced kinesthetic illusion on brain function, which compared it with brain function during actual muscle contractile movement by using the EEG analysis. Subjects: Twenty healthy people aged 21.5±1.5 years were recruited. No subjects were observed to exhibit motor and sensory paralysis. Methods: Brain waves in vibratory stimulation were measured in the resting condition and presence of vibratory stimulation, active muscle contraction (active movement), and sensory stimulation without vibratory stimulation to tendon or movement. For the neurophysiological index to evaluate brain function, the μ rhythm (10-13Hz high α cortical Oscillations), which is expressed mainly in the kinesthetic cortex and attenuates with movement, was employed. Calculated data were compared employing analyses of Source Localization and Functional Connectivity by eLORETA method. Results: In vibratory stimulation condition, compared to brain waves in the resting condition or sensory stimulation condition, the kinesthetic cortical μ rhythm decreased under the other conditions. Furthermore, intra- and inter-hemispheric brain functional connectivity in sensorimotor cortex were significantly stronger than it under the other conditions. When brain waves were compared between those in the presence of vibratory stimulation and active movement, no significant difference was noted in both the kinesthetic cortical μ rhythm and functional connectivity in sensorimotor cortex. Conclusions: These findings suggested that sensorimotor information processing induced by vibratory stimulation is based on neural functional networks in sensorimotor cortex.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the exercise effect and exercise load in patients with the subacute phase of inflammatory myopathy. Methods: We set exercise loads according to the modified Borg scale (BS). Thirteen patients performed exercises that mainly comprised muscle strength and endurance training after 1-6 weeks following the onset of inflammatory myopathy. Muscle training exercises included straight leg raise, hip raise, squat, and calf raise, with the exercise load resulting in muscle fatigue of 2-4 on the BS. Endurance training involved walking or ergometer cycling, with the exercise load resulting in dyspnea of 2-4 on the BS. Subsequently, we investigated the trainable exercise load continuously. Furthermore, we compared muscle strength on knee extension, 6-min walking distance, and creatine kinase (CK) levels before and after exercises. Result: Of the 13 patients, 10 completed the exercises. Three patients could not complete the exercise because of deterioration of their general condition, increase in CK levels, and muscle pain. Of the 10 patients who completed the exercises, 9 performed moderate load exercises (BS, 4) and 1 patient performed low load exercises (BS, 2) because of arrhythmia and muscle pain. No increase in CK levels were observed in these 10 patients. Further, no significant improvements were observed in knee-extension strength, but the 6-min walk distance significantly improved after exercises compared to that before the exercises (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results indicate that patients with subacute inflammatory myopathy should initially perform low load exercises, and subsequently, the load should be set depending on individual conditions while simultaneously checking for myalgia and CK levels, and improvement in strength. The careful monitoring of load during muscle training is important. In contrast, endurance levels improve after training with moderate load if patients have a stable condition.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was examine the effects of hip joint angles in sagittal plane on the hip external and internal rotator force. Methods: Thirty-two healthy volunteers (male: sixteen people, female: sixteen people, mean age: 21.9±3.8years, range: 18-33 years) participated in this study. There were 4 condition that measured the hip joint angles in that plane extension 10 degree, flexion 0 degree, flexion 45 degree and flexion 90 degree. The maximum isometric external and internal rotational force were measured with hip joint abduction 0 degree, rotation 0 degree and knee joint flexion 90 degree. Results: External rotator force at extension 10 degree was significantly lower than at flexion 45 degree in female, in addition to Flexion 0 degree was significantly lower than flexion 45 degree and 90 degree in both male and female. Those two sex have internal rotation force at extension 10 degree and flexion 0 degree were significantly lower than at flexion 45 degree and 90 degree in common. Conclusion: The effects of hip joint angles in sagittal plane on the hip external rotator force was small, on the other hand internal rotation force increased as hip joint angle of flexion.

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Purpose: This study aimed to clarify the association of muscle fat infiltration with cervical extensor muscle laterality and postural stability in patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. Methods: We evaluated 20 patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. The measure of the amount of fat within the muscles was obtained by the ratio of the pixel intensities of the upper trapezius and cervical multifidus muscles to the pixel intensity of a standardized region of intermuscular fat using magnetic resonance imaging. In the stabilometer test, postural sway determined by a shift in the center of pressure was measured in the upright position on a platform with the subject's eyes closed for 60s. We used two parameters for evaluation: locus length (LNG) and environmental area (EA). Spearman's rank and partial correlation test was used to analyze the association between fat indices in the upper trapezius and multifidus muscles and the results of the LNG. To determine whether any factor could the LNG, a step-wise multiple regression analysis was performed with LNG as the dependent variable and age, gender, body mass index, neck disability index and muscle fat infiltration with cervical extensor muscle laterality as independent variable. Results: Impaired cervical multifidus muscle had a significant correlation with LNG. The multiple regression analysis demonstrated that muscle fat infiltration with impaired cervical multifidus muscle was significant contributors to LNG, accounting for 62% of the variability. Conclusion: In the patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy, muscle fat infiltration with impaired cervical multifidus muscle possibly affected postural control.

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