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Event-related Potentials During Target-response Tasks to Study Cognitive Processes of Upper Limb Use in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy
Published on: January 11, 2016
Interhemispheric interaction in the motor domain in children with cerebral palsy
Nadezhda V Zaytseva1, M Sami Walid, Elena M Berdichevskaia
1Department of Physical Education, Kuban State Medical University, Krasnodar, Russia. Zacev77@yahoo.com
Insights
Cerebral palsy (CP) rehabilitation improves hand synkinesis, reflecting changes in brain connections. These findings aid in monitoring motor skill development in children with CP.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pediatrics
- Rehabilitation Medicine
Background:
- Cerebral palsy (CP) significantly impacts early childhood motor and behavioral skill development.
- Understanding intra- and interhemispheric connections is crucial for CP patient rehabilitation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate motor-domain brain connection specifics in children with CP.
- To analyze the dynamics of these connections during rehabilitation using hand/finger synkinesis and lateral profile markers.
Main Methods:
- Study included 215 children (4-7 years), 95 with CP (spastic diplegia, hemiparetic forms) and 120 healthy controls.
- Complex treatment was administered to CP patients in a neuropsychological sanatorium.
- Data analyzed using nonparametric methods and chi-square test (SPSS v.14).
Main Results:
- Rehabilitation altered synkinesis scores, indicating uniform interhemispheric connection restoration in spastic diplegia with less intrahemispheric disturbance.
- Hemiplegia showed prevailing intrahemispheric misbalance, with compensation observed only in left-hemispheric pathology.
- Hand synkinesis improvement varied based on the lateral phenotype.
Conclusions:
- Hand/finger synkinesis in children with CP are dynamic and change with rehabilitation.
- The study's methods are recommended for medico-biological and psycho-pedagogical monitoring systems for children with CP.
Background:
The attention of pediatric specialists has been continuously attracted to the problem of cerebral palsy (CP) and the formation of behavioral and motor skills in the initial years of life in these patients. This work aimed at studying the specifics of intra- and interhemispheric connections in the motor domain in children with CP as well as their dynamics in the process of rehabilitation using hand/finger synkineses and and lateral profile as markers.
Materials And Methods:
A total of 215 children aged 4-7 years were recruited after obtaining their parents' consent, including 95 patients with the most prevalent forms of CP (spastic diplegia, hemiparetic form) who underwent complex treatment in a neuropsychological sanatorium and 120 healthy children from a kindergarten. Data were analyzed using nonparametric methods and the chi-square test with the help of the statistical program SPSS v.14.
Results:
Changes in the scores and types of synkinesis after rehabilitation indicated that in spastic diplegia the assumed symmetric brain defects were associated with uniform restoration of interhemispheric connections and less disturbance of intrahemispheric connections. In hemiplegia, on the contrary, misbalance in intrahemispheric connections prevailed and compensation was noticed only in left-hemispheric pathology. The magnitude, type, and improvement of hand synkineses in the course of treatment depended on the lateral phenotype.
Conclusion:
Hand/finger synkineses in CP children change with rehabilitation. The methods used in the study can be recommended for application in the system of medico-biological and psycho-pedagogical monitoring of children with CP.
