Instrumental study of motor functions in children under school age using the stabilotest and ataksitest devices

Abstract

Instrumental examination of motor activity is an important component of many methodical approaches from fundamental research studies to practical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.Physiological mechanisms of central organization of motor activity are presently considered in terms of afferent-efferent principles of functioning of the central nervous system. The concept of N. A. Bernshtein on the vertical organization of motor activity [1] is presently widely recognized as the most adequate. According to this concept, each type of motor activity is implemented at either the cortical or the subcortical structural level. This theory states that integral behavior can be represented in spatial-temporal continuum as a sequence of behavioral events, the system of afferentation determining the behavioral act being changed during ontogeny. According to A. V. Zaporozhets [2], orientation-research and searching activities contribute significantly to the formation of voluntary motions. Therefore, development of motor functions is an important indicator of the functional state of the brain and physical status as a whole. There are several diagnostic scales widely accepted by foreign researchers for assessing the extent of motor activity and coordination. However, motometric examination based on these scales is rather laborious, time-consuming, and subjective. Therefore, development of instrumental methods providing objective evaluation of motometric parameters is rather important.Timely detection of psychomotoric dysfunction at an early age is very important, because the rehabilitation and correction therapy has been found to be most effective at the early stages of the pathology.We tested a total of 65 apparently healthy children with ages ranging from four to six years (31 girls and 34 boys) from a Moscow kindergarten and 40 children under school and of early school age with infantile cerebral paralysis (ICP) and motor dyscoordination (before and after a 10-day cycle of treatment). Examinations were carried out with a computer-assisted posturograph Stabilotest and an Ataksitest device for testing ocular, motor, and hand tremor. These devices were developed and manufactured at the All-Russian Scientific-Research Institute for Medical Instrument Engineering, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. D~rgicesThe Stabilotest device (Fig. 1) is a special stabilographic platform, which is connected via a transformer and a controller to a computer. This device implements the method of visual kinetic monitoring of the projection of the center of mass (PCM) of the human body onto a horizontal plane with voluntary maintaining of vertical posture. The stabilographic method is routinely used for testing vertical stability of patients with nervous diseases, craniocerebral injury, orthopedic indications, vestibular disorders, etc. Both amplitude and temporal characteristics of sagittal and lateral oscillations are measured. The results of the measurements of signals of sensors installed on a special stabilographic platform are displayed on...

Instruments for psychophysiological examination of higher mental functions in children and adolescents—from devices and systems to medical engineering technologies of diagnosis, rehabilitation, and monitoring

“…Pediatric patients with ICP were tested with the Ataksitest and Stabilotest devices at the Research Center for Psychoneurological Disability of Children [15]. The efficacy of treatment was monitored by the parameters of dynamic visual-motor coordination and postural stability.…”

Development of instrumental technologies for assessing higher mental functions in normal and pathological states

“…Pediatric patients with infantile cerebral paralysis were tested with the Ataksitest and Stabilotest devices at the Research Center for Psychoneurological Disability of Children [8]. Efficacy of treatment was monitored by the parameters of dynamic visual-motor coordination and postural stability.…”

“…More than 250 children with various types of the nervous system pathologies and groups of apparently healthy schoolchildren (7 to 15 years old) have been tested using the Ritmotest, Mnemotest, and Binatest devices [3,7,8].…”