Grip force coordination during bimanual tasks in unilateral cerebral palsy

Abstract

Temporal coordination and scaling of fingertip forces were impaired in both hands in participants with CP. The non-involved hand was strongly affected by activity in the involved hand, which may explain why children with unilateral CP prefer to use only one hand during tasks that are typically performed with both hands.

Mirror movements in unilateral spastic cerebral palsy: Specific negative impact on bimanual activities of daily living

“…And indeed, this hypothesis has recently received support from experimental data. 10 One candidate mechanism for this interference between activities of the two hands is a phenomenon called mirror movements (MM): Many, but not all patients with USCP show involuntary movements with the other hand during voluntary unimanual movements 11,12,13,2 . And in contrast to adult hemiparetic stroke, where MM apparently occur exclusively during voluntary movements of the paretic hand, 14 MM in USCP are often observed both in the paretic and in the nonparetic hand.…”

Precision Grip in Congenital and Acquired Hemiparesis: Similarities in Impairments and Implications for Neurorehabilitation

“…Nevertheless, anticipatory control is present (Gordon et al, 1999, 2006; Steenbergen et al, 2008) suggesting lateralized impairments in motor planning underlying precision grip in HCP, which could reflect a lateralized deficit in the sensorimotor integration (Prabhu et al, 2011). In bimanual tasks, however, children with HCP demonstrate less accurate performance in both hands when compared to unimanual use (Islam et al, 2011; Smits-Engelsman et al, 2011), suggesting that while dissociated in unimanual motor planning, each effector can be influenced by the other in a bimanual context.…”

“…The integration of the precise GF and LF coupling in a bimanual context have been studied recently when opposite or concomitant patterns of force are required in the hands: a handheld object had to be placed on the top of another object statically held in the other hand (Islam et al, 2011) or two pieces of a handheld object had to be pulled apart (Smits-Engelsman et al, 2011). These tasks, when performed with healthy adults, demonstrated coordinated actions of both hands.…”

Neurophysiological mechanisms and functional impact of mirror movements in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy

“…Islam et al 20 were the first to directly test the impact of mirror movements on an asymmetrical bimanual task. Participants were instructed to perform two tasks: (1) held grip devices in both hands and then placed the smaller device on top of the bigger device; (2) held devices in both hands and then compressed a device with one hand repeatedly.…”