title: Neural and musculoskeletal contributions to the development of stance balance control in typical children and in children with cerebral palsy.
abstract: Studies on the development of automatic postural responses in both typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy were performed. With the appearance of "pull-to-stand" behavior, typically developing children first began to show muscle responses to platform movements in mainly the ankle muscles. With increased development, additional agonist muscles were added to the response pattern and a consistent distal to proximal sequence began to emerge. Well-organized responses were seen with the onset of independent stance and walking, along with the reduction of antagonist muscle co-activation. The older children with cerebral palsy who were pre-walkers had immature muscle activation patterns like those seen in the typically developing children at the pull-to-stand stage of development. These included disorganized muscle responses and increased frequency of coactivation of both proximal-distal and agonist-antagonist muscles. In order to determine if musculoskeletal constraints contributed to these response patterns, normal children were asked to stand in a crouched posture similar to that of children with CP. This caused postural muscle response patterns to more closely approximate those of children with spastic diplegia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise and Movement Science, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403-1240, USA.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Woollacott
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Burtner
mesh_terms: D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009043:Motor Activity; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values