Paralysis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Paralysis, including details on treatment, diagnosis, facial paralysis, sleep paralysis.

Activity limitation in hemiplegic cerebral palsy: evidence for disorders in motor planning.

Steenbergen B, Gordon AM

Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, Radboud University Nijmegen, HE, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. steenbergen@nici.ru.nl

Review of the definition of cerebral palsy (CP) has focused on disorders of movement and posture development that cause activity limitations. Recent research provides new insights into CP, showing that activity limitation in individuals with hemiplegic CP is not exclusively caused by disorders related to movement execution, but is also related to the planning of movements. In this review article, converging evidence is presented suggesting that, in addition to movement execution impairments, impairments in movement planning may also limit the performance of activities of daily living. Evidence from studies of fingertip-force planning and anticipatory planning in object manipulation tasks is discussed.

Published 14 August 2006 in Dev Med Child Neurol, 48(9): 780-3.
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