A scoping review on examination approaches for identifying tactile deficits at the upper extremity in individuals with stroke.
Arco P Paul, Karan Nayak, Lindsey C Sydnor and 6 others
PMID 38851741WHAT IT FOUND
Current stroke touch tests rely on subjective patient responses at rest, often missing the active exploration used in daily life.
They rarely compare against healthy controls or check peripheral nerves, limiting their ability to pinpoint where sensory pathways break down.
Key findings
01Most included studies used behavioral tests with the arm at rest, with only 2 involving active movement.
02Behavioral approaches typically offered only 3 outcomes (intact, impaired, absent), resulting in poor resolution for detecting change.
03A majority of studies did not compare tactile deficits to neurotypical individuals, and most did not report which peripheral nerves were tested.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review only included articles published in English. The included studies were heterogeneous in design and outcome measures, preventing a meta-analysis. Many primary studies did not report sufficient detail on nerve targeting or normative comparisons, limiting the depth of the review's conclusions.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of significant findings in this review as evidence that current touch tests are accurate. The review highlights that existing tools are subjective, low-resolution, and often fail to account for active movement or peripheral nerve integrity, meaning they may systematically underestimate or mischaracterize tactile deficits.