Grasping and digit-position sense in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Grasping and digit-position sense in patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
IRAS ID
195274
Contact name
Kenneth Valyear
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bangor University
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a common peripheral nerve impairment resulting from compression of the median nerve that services the thumb, index and middle fingers of the hand. Symptoms include loss of sensation in the affected digits, feelings of numbness and ‘pins and needles’, weakened grip, and even pain. The purpose of this project is to investigate whether patients suffering from CTS also have problems sensing the position of their affected digits, and if so, whether these impairments contribute significantly to the challenges they experience manipulating objects in everyday life.
We will ask CTS patients and healthy participants to perform a series of simple tasks involving their hands. They will feel objects and make judgments about their sizes and shapes, respond to light touch on their hands by indicating where the touch was felt, and grasp objects while we use special cameras to monitor the ways in which their hands move.
Critically, these tests will provide us with measures of participant’s abilities to sense the position of their hand and digits. We will use these measures to determine whether digit-position sense is impaired in CTS, and if so, whether these impairments relate to the difficulties patients experience when handling objects in everyday life.
We will also ask participants to complete two short questionnaires about the symptoms related to their condition.
Research will be conducted at the School of Psychology, Bangor University.
Participation will involve two visits, each not exceeding 7 hours. Patients will be asked to visit the lab for testing before and after their clinical treatment. To evaluate the consistency of our measures over time, healthy control participants will also be asked to complete two sessions of testing.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
16/WA/0157
Date of REC Opinion
26 May 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion