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ERIC Number: EJ928741
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0891-4222
EISSN: N/A
Bimanual Force Coordination in Children with Spastic Unilateral Cerebral Palsy
Smits-Engelsman, B. C. M.; Klingels, K.; Feys, H.
Research in Developmental Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, v32 n5 p2011-2019 Sep-Oct 2011
In this study bimanual grip-force coordination was quantified using a novel "Gripper" system that records grip forces produced while holding a lower and upper unit, in combination with the lift force necessary to separate these units. Children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) (aged 5-14 years, n = 12) were compared to age matched typically developing (TD) children (n = 23). Compared to TD, the CP-group is much slower and takes 50% more time to generate grip and lift forces with more fixating force before lifting the upper unit. In addition the coordination between forces in both hands is reduced. The CP-group increases the lift force in the upper hand 2.5 times more than the holding force when pulling the two units apart, while this is only 1.5 times in TD. Moreover, the correlation between forces generated in both hands in the CP-group is lower. The lack of fine tuning of the forces, measured by the linearity error is increased, especially when the magnet load keeping the unit together is low. The results indicate an impaired pull-hold synergy between upper and lower hand and the lift force. Bimanual tasks evaluating bimanual grip and lift forces in children with CP and can give us new insights in the underlying force control mechanisms of the spastic hand. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A