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Assessment of Upper Limb Motor Dysfunction for Children with Cerebral Palsy Based on Muscle Synergy Analysis
Lu Tang1, Xiang Chen1, Shuai Cao1
1Department of Electronic Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, China.
Insights
This study introduces a new method using muscle synergy analysis to assess upper limb motor dysfunction in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The approach effectively quantifies motor control abnormalities, aiding in clinical diagnosis and rehabilitation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Rehabilitation Science
Background:
- Muscle synergies are fundamental to motor behavior.
- Cerebral palsy (CP) often involves upper limb motor dysfunction.
- Objective assessment of motor control in CP is crucial for effective treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an objective and effective method for assessing upper limb motor dysfunction in CP children using muscle synergy analysis.
- To identify differences in muscle synergy patterns between CP and typically developed (TD) children during upper limb tasks.
Main Methods:
- Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals were recorded from 10 upper limb muscles in 14 CP and 10 TD children performing three upper limb motion tasks.
- Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) was used to extract muscle synergies and activation patterns.
- Synergy structure similarity coefficients and novel upper limb assessment (UPA) metrics were developed to quantify motor function.
Main Results:
- TD children exhibited four distinct muscle synergies per task, while CP children showed fewer, less mature synergies with abnormal structures.
- The synergy structure similarity coefficient effectively captured inter- and intra-subject variability.
- Seven UPA metrics demonstrated comprehensive and effective assessment of upper limb motor function in CP children.
Conclusions:
- The proposed muscle synergy analysis provides a promising, physiologically-based quantitative index for assessing upper limb motor function in CP.
- This method can aid in the clinical diagnosis and rehabilitation of CP by quantifying muscle synergy abnormalities.
Abstract:
Muscle synergies are considered to be building blocks underlying motor behaviors. The goal of this study is to explore an objective and effective method to assess the upper limb motor dysfunction of cerebral palsy (CP) children from the aspect of muscle synergy analysis. Fourteen CP children and 10 typically developed (TD) children were recruited to perform three similar upper limb motion tasks related to the movements of elbow and shoulder joints, and surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals were recorded from 10 upper arm and shoulder muscles involved in the defined tasks. Non-negative matrix factorization algorithm was used to extract muscle synergies and the corresponding activation patterns during three similar tasks. For each subject in TD group, four muscle synergies were extracted in each task. Whereas, fewer mature synergies were recruited in CP group, and many abnormal synergy structures specific to CP group appeared. In view of neuromuscular control strategy differences, three synergy-related parameters were proposed and synergy structure similarity coefficient was found to have high ability in depicting the inter-subject similarity within task and the intra-subject similarity between tasks. Seven upper limb assessment (UPA) metrics, which were defined as the combinations of synergy structure similarity coefficients of three tasks, were proposed to assess the upper limb motor function of CP children. The experimental results demonstrated that these UPA metrics were able to assess upper limb motor function comprehensively and effectively. The proposed assessment method can serve as a promising approach to quantify the abnormality of muscle synergies, thus offering potential to derive a physiologically based quantitative index for assessing upper limb motor function in CP clinical diagnosis and rehabilitation.