The Effect of Motor Learning on Upper Limb Performance in Fascioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy Patients

Muscular dystrophy (MD) patients suffer from progressive weakness resulting in disability. The effect of exercise to overcome weakness in MD patients is doubtful and there is some evidence that showed overloading on dystrophic muscle may increase the progress of disease (Johnson and Braddom, 1971). Motor learning (ML) therapy could be another possibility to improve muscle performance, as it may programme the central nervous system to drive weak muscles more effectively. Although ML may be used to improve performance in patients with central nervous system dysfunction (Carr and Shepherd, 1987) there has been no investigation of the benefits of such therapy in MD. We therefore investigated the effect of a ML protocol on upper limb function in fascioscapulohumeral MD (FSHD) patients.