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Are postural adjustments during reaching related to walking development in typically developing infants and infants
Lieke C van Balen1, Anke G Boxum1, Linze-Jaap Dijkstra1
1University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Dept. Paediatrics, Developmental Neurology, The Netherlands.
Insights
Postural adjustments during reaching mature with age in typically developing infants. Infants at very high risk for cerebral palsy (CP) do not show these developmental changes, indicating a potential postural deficit.
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Motor control
- Infant motor development
Background:
- Postural adjustments during reaching mature in the second half of infancy.
- These developmental changes are altered in infants at high risk for cerebral palsy (CP).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between the acquisition of independent walking and changes in postural adjustments during reaching.
- To determine if developmental changes in postural control are associated with walking ability or chronological age.
Main Methods:
- Assessed postural adjustments during reaching in typically developing (TD) infants and infants at very high risk (VHR) for CP before and after they learned to walk.
- Recorded surface electromyography of arm, neck, and trunk muscles during reaching tasks in supported sitting.
- Calculated direction-specific adjustments, recruitment patterns, and anticipatory activation.
Main Results:
- Postural adjustments during reaching remained similar before and after independent walking acquisition in both groups.
- Direction-specificity of postural adjustments increased with age in TD infants.
- VHR infants did not exhibit an increase in direction-specificity with age.
Conclusions:
- Increasing age, not the transition to independent walking, is linked to improved direction-specificity in TD infants' reaching.
- Infants at VHR for CP demonstrate a lack of increasing direction-specificity, suggesting a developing postural deficit.
Background:
In typical development, postural adjustments during reaching change in the second half of infancy, including increasing rates of direction-specific adjustments. These changes are absent or different in infants at risk of cerebral palsy (CP). To discover whether these changes are related to acquisition of independent walking, we studied postural adjustments during reaching in infants before and after they learned to walk.
Methods:
Ten typically developing (TD) infants and 11 infants at very high risk (VHR) of CP were assessed before and after they learned to walk. Reaching movements were elicited during supported sitting, while surface electromyography was recorded of arm, neck, and trunk muscles. Percentages of direction-specific adjustments (first level of control), and recruitment patterns and anticipatory activation (second level of control) were calculated.
Results:
In both groups, postural adjustments during reaching were similar before and after acquisition of independent walking. Direction-specificity increased with age in typically developing infants but not in VHR-infants.
Conclusion:
Increasing age rather than the transition to independent walking is associated with increasing direction-specificity of TD-infants during reaching while sitting, while infants at very high risk of CP show no increase in direction-specificity, suggesting that they gradually grow into a postural deficit.
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