GripAble: Interrater reliability and normative grip strength of UK population.

BACKGROUND: Hand grip strength is an established indicator of individual health status and is used as a biomarker for predicting mortality, disability, and disease risks. GripAble hand grip dynamometer offers a modernized approach to measuring grip strength with its digital and high-accuracy measurement system. PURPOSE: This study aimed to (1) assess the interrater reliability of maximum grip strength (MGS) measurement and (2) establish GripAble's own gender-, age group- and hand-stratified normative MGS reference values of the adult UK population. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study design. METHODS: Interrater reliability among three raters assessing 30 participants across diverse age groups was measured using the intraclass correlation. In the second study, 11 investigators gathered MGS data from 907 participants across diverse age groups and gender. The average, standard deviation, minimum, median, maximum, and percentiles of MGS were computed for each gender, age group, and hand (L/R). The relationship between MGS and age was examined using quantile regression analysis. Additionally, generalized linear model regression analysis was conducted to explore the influence of participants' demographics (gender, hand [L/R], hand length, hand circumference, age, weight, and height) on MGS. RESULTS: MGS measurements between raters showed excellent agreement (ICC(2,1) = 0.991, 95% confidence interval [0.98, 1.0]). The MGS and age relationship follows a curvilinear pattern, reaching a peak median MGS values of up to 20 kg between 30 and 49 years for females and up to 35 kg between 30 and 59 years for males. Subsequently, MGS declined as age advanced. Gender and hand (L/R) emerged as the primary factors influencing MGS, followed by hand length, hand circumference, age, weight, and height. CONCLUSIONS: The presented normative MGS reference values can be used for interpreting MGS measurements obtained from adults in the United Kingdom using GripAble. This study, along with previous studies on GripAble devices, confirms GripAble as a reliable and valid tool for measuring MGS.

Real-time auditory feedback may reduce abnormal movements in patients with chronic stroke.

PURPOSE: The current pilot study assesses the use of real-time auditory feedback to help reduce abnormal movements during an active reaching task in patients with chronic stroke. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 20 patients with chronic stroke completed the study with full datasets (age: M = 53 SD = 14; sex: male = 75%; time since stroke in months: M = 34, SD = 33). Patients undertook 100 repetitions of an active reaching task while listening to self-selected music which automatically muted when abnormal movement was detected, determined by thresholds set by clinical therapists. A within-subject design with two conditions (with auditory feedback vs. without auditory feedback) presented in a randomised counterbalanced order was used. The dependent variable was the duration of abnormal movement as a proportion of trial duration. RESULTS: A significant reduction in the duration of abnormal movement was observed when patients received auditory feedback, F(1,18) = 9.424, p = 0.007, with a large effect size (partial η2 = 0.344). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with chronic stroke can make use of real-time auditory feedback to increase the proportion of time they spend in optimal movement patterns. The approach provides a motivating framework that encourages high dose with a key focus on quality of movement. Trial Registration: ISRCTN12969079 https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN12969079 ISRTCN trial registration REF: ISRCTN12969079IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONMovement quality during upper limb rehabilitation should be targeted as part of a well-balanced rehabilitation programme.Auditory feedback is a useful tool to help patients with chronic stroke reduce compensatory movements.

Melodic expectations in 5- and 6-year-old children.

It has been argued that children implicitly acquire the rules relating to the structure of music in their environment using domain-general mechanisms such as statistical learning. Closely linked to statistical learning is the ability to form expectations about future events. Whether children as young as 5 years can make use of such internalized regularities to form expectations about the next note in a melody is still unclear. The possible effect of the home musical environment on the strength of musical expectations has also been under-explored. Using a newly developed melodic priming task that included melodies with either "expected" or "unexpected" endings according to rules of Western music theory, we tested 5- and 6-year-old children (N = 46). The stimuli in this task were constructed using the information dynamics of music (IDyOM) system, a probabilistic model estimating the level of "unexpectedness" of a note given the preceding context. Results showed that responses to expected versus unexpected tones were faster and more accurate, indicating that children have already formed robust melodic expectations at 5 years of age. Aspects of the home musical environment significantly predicted the strength of melodic expectations, suggesting that implicit musical learning may be influenced by the quantity of informal exposure to the surrounding musical environment.