ABSTRACT
This chapter describes whether there is evidence in patients suffering from spastic hemiparesis for a coupling between the limbs in a bimanual task, thereby reducing or eliminating asymmetry effects. It examines bimanual coordination in patients with pronounced manual asymmetries. One of the features of spastic hemiparesis is a pronounced asymmetry between the two sides of the body. However, only scant research has been conducted to investigate bimanual coordination in patients with pronounced movement asymmetries. Large asymmetries existed between the impaired and unimpaired hand in the one-handed condition. Two-handed coordination reduced most of the asymmetry effects present in the one-handed condition. However, the hand moving to the easier target was progressively slowed down, whereas the hand moving to the more difficult target was not significantly affected. In addition, as the spatial demands of the task increased, the impaired hand tended to be slowed down to a larger extent than the unimpaired hand.
