Impact of sensory impairments on movement in children with cerebral palsy

项目总结 脑性瘫痪(CP)是儿科最常见的神经系统疾病。CP是由以下损坏引起的 发育过程中的大脑区域。脑性瘫痪会导致虚弱、语调改变和协调异常。单边的 痉挛型CP(USCP)，损害以单侧占优势。尽管脑瘫被定义为运动障碍， 大约80%的USCP患者有感觉缺陷，这限制了康复的程度。那里 对患有USCP的儿童的感觉和运动系统如何相互作用的理解很差。减值 运动和感觉功能在很大程度上是单独(而不是一起)研究的， 尽管自由运动需要感觉和运动加工的整合。此外，虽然 马达系统的特点更好了，对其位置、类型和 儿童皮损的大小会影响感觉运动的处理。迫切需要确定和量化 影响USCP儿童运动的感觉因素。 我们的长期目标是开发基于证据的方法来改善USCP儿童的运动能力。 这个项目的总体目标是确定肢体位置的细微触觉和感觉 导致USCP儿童的运动障碍。为了达到我们的目标，我们不仅要知道如何感官 系统影响运动障碍，但我们必须确定儿童的损伤和大脑连接 导致了这些损伤。我们的中心假设是感觉功能障碍在 USCP儿童从事功能性、熟练动作的能力。我们还假设，对 特定的大脑区域会导致特定类型的损伤。拟议工作的理由是 证明感觉障碍和运动障碍之间的强烈关系将引导 开发让儿童在有意义的复杂过程中使用感觉信息的治疗方法 任务，目标是促进运动功能。 好了！

PROJECT SUMMARY Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common pediatric neurological disorder. CP is caused by damage to brain areas during development. CP results in weakness, altered tone and abnormal coordination. In unilateral spastic CP (USCP), the damage has a unilateral predominance. Although CP is defined as a motor disability, approximately 80% of people with USCP have deficits in sensation that limit the extent of rehabilitation. There is a poor understanding of how the sensory and motor systems interact in children with USCP. Impairments in motor and sensory function have largely been studied in isolation (rather than together) in children with USCP, even though voluntary movement requires the integration of sensory and motor processing. Moreover, while the motor system is better-characterized, there is still a limited understanding of how the location, type, and size of a child’s lesion impacts sensorimotor processing. There is an urgent need to identify and quantify sensory factors that impair movement in children with USCP. Our long-term goal is to develop evidence-based ways to improve movement in children with USCP. The overall objective for this project is to determine how fine touch sensation and sensation of limb position contribute to movement deficits in children with USCP. To meet our goal, we must not only know how sensory systems impact impairment in movement, but we must determine how a child’s lesion and brain connectivity contributes to these impairments. Our central hypothesis is that sensory dysfunction plays a key role in the ability of children with USCP to engage in functional, skillful movements. We also hypothesize that damage to specific brain regions cause specific kinds of impairments. The rationale for the proposed work is that demonstration of a strong relationship between sensory impairments and movement deficits will steer the development of therapies that engage children in the use of sensory information during meaningful complex tasks, with the goal of boosting motor function. !