Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 3, 2026
Asymmetric Walkway: A Novel Behavioral Assay for Studying Asymmetric Locomotion
Published on: January 15, 2016
Asymmetry in children with unilateral cerebral palsy during sit-to-stand movement: Cross-sectional, repeated-measures
Adriana Neves Dos Santos1, Gisele Moreira Pena2, Evelyn Maria Guilherme2
1Department of Physiotherapy, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rod. Washington Luis, km 235, 13565-905 São Carlos, SP, Brazil; Department of Health Science, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Rod. Governador Jorge Lacerda, n° 3201 - Km 35, 4, 88905-355 Araranguá, SC, Brazil.
Insights
Children with unilateral cerebral palsy use adaptive motor strategies, like increased trunk and limb flexion, when rising from a lowered seat. These findings are crucial for clinical practice in pediatric physical therapy.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanical analysis
- Pediatric motor control
- Neurorehabilitation
Background:
- Children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) exhibit distinct motor patterns compared to typically developing peers.
- Understanding sit-to-stand (STS) movement strategies is vital for assessing functional mobility in children with CP.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the motor strategies employed during STS by children with unilateral CP and typically developing children.
- To investigate the influence of different seat heights on STS kinematics and kinetics.
Main Methods:
- Kinematic and kinetic analysis of STS movement in 11 children with unilateral CP and 20 typically developing children.
- Evaluation across three seat heights: neutral, elevated (120%), and lowered (80%).
- Outcome variables included movement duration, joint angles, range of motion, ground reaction forces, and asymmetry indices.
Main Results:
- A lowered seat height prompted increased lower limb and trunk flexion, extended movement duration, and greater knee and trunk range of motion in all participants.
- Children with unilateral CP demonstrated increased posterior pelvic tilt, reduced hip flexion, and backward movement of the non-affected limb from a lowered seat.
- Ankle asymmetry was noted in children with unilateral CP during STS from neutral and lowered seats.
Conclusions:
- Lowered seat height elicits adaptive motor strategies in children with unilateral CP during the sit-to-stand task.
- These adaptive strategies, including altered joint kinematics and movement patterns, should be considered in clinical interventions for children with unilateral CP.
Background:
We aimed to compare motor strategies adopted by children with unilateral Cerebral Palsy and typically developing children during the performance of sit-to-stand.
Methods:
Eleven children with unilateral cerebral palsy and 20 typically developing children were evaluated. Kinematic and kinetic analysis of the sit-to-stand movement was performed. Three seat heights were evaluated: neutral (90° of hip-knee-ankle flexion), elevated to 120% of the neutral height, and lowered to 80% of the neutral height. As outcome variables, we considered sit-to-stand duration (temporal); initial, final and maximal sagittal angles and range of motion of trunk, pelvis, hip, knee, and ankle (kinematics); the peak of vertical ground reaction force (kinetics), and asymmetric index. Effect size is represented by η2p.
Findings:
We found that for the lowered seat, all groups presented increased flexion of lower limbs and trunk to initiate sit-to-stand (p≤0.012; η2p = 0.41-0.84), increased peak flexion of trunk, hip and knee (p≤0.01; η2p = 0.39-0.88), increased range of motion of knee and trunk (p≤0.01; η2p = 0.45-0.85) and the duration of sit-to-stand (p≤0.05 η2p = 0.23-0.56). Children with unilateral cerebral palsy presented increased posterior pelvic tilt (p≤0.01) and decreased hip flexion of both lower limbs (p≤0.01) for all seat heights and moved their non-affected limb backward in the lowered seat (p≤0.01). Asymmetry was observed for the final and the maximal angles of the ankle in neutral and lowered seats in unilateral cerebral palsy (asymmetry index = 3.3-5.8%).
Interpretation:
The lowered seat height led to adaptive motor strategies in children with unilateral cerebral palsy, which should be considered in clinical practice.
More Related Videos
07:20Author Spotlight: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Combined with Movement Observation in Cerebral Palsy
Published on: August 9, 2024
08:26Event-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