title: Cutaneomuscular reflex responses recorded from the lower limb in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy.
abstract: Cutaneomuscular reflex (CMR) responses were recorded from lower-limb and trunk muscles in 27 subjects with cerebral palsy (CP) (spastic, 21; athetoid, six) and in neurologically healthy (control) subjects, aged 3 to 15 years, while standing. In the 21 subjects with spastic CP, but not in the six subjects with athetoid CP, CMR responses were more widely distributed between ipsilateral lower-limb and trunk muscles compared with age-matched control children. CMR responses in older subjects with CP were similar to younger control subjects, lacking supraspinally mediated, long-latency components. Short-latency, spinally-mediated, excitatory CMR components were seen simultaneously in pairs of distal, antagonistic lower-limb muscles in half of the subjects with spastic CP, but in none of the control children. In subjects with spastic-type CP, the abnormal reflex responses indicate disordered spinal and supraspinal inputs to motor neurones, although there was no convincing correlation between these responses and the severity of spasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University College of London, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000473:pathology; D012021:Reflex, Abnormal