• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate effect of Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE) technique on the motor function of the affected upper limb in hemiplegic stroke patients by comparing the use of PSE and simple rhythmic cue. A total of 16 stroke patients were recruited from rehabilitative hospitals. The participants were assigned to the experimental group (n = 8) and control group (n = 8). While performing six different upper limb motions, musical stimuli applying the PSE technique was presented for the experimental group and simple rhythmic cue using the metronome was applied for the control group. The results showed that while the significantly increased range of motion (ROM) was found in the experimental group with the immediate use of PSE (p < .05), the control group did not show no significant change. This study implies that the use of musical elements in cueing for upper limb motion immediately leads to significant improvement in ROM by providing sufficient temporal, spatial, and dynamic information for expected motor performance.