Early brain lesions which produce cerebral palsy (CP) may affect the development of walking. It is unclear whether or how neuromuscular control, as evaluated by muscle synergy analysis, differs in young children with CP compared to typically developing (TD) children with the same walking ability, before and after the onset of independent walking. Here we grouped twenty children with (high risk of) CP and twenty TD children (age 6.5–52.4 months) based on their walking ability, supported or independent walking. Muscle synergies were extracted from electromyography data of bilateral leg muscles using non-negative matrix factorization. Number, synergies’ structure and variability accounted for when extracting one (VAF₁ ) or two (VAF₂ ) synergies were compared between CP and TD. Children in the CP group recruited fewer synergies with higher VAF₁ and VAF₂ compared to TD children in the supported and independent walking group. The most affected side in children with asymmetric CP walking independently recruited fewer synergies with higher VAF₁ compared to the least affected side. Our findings suggest that early brain lesions result in early alterations of neuromuscular control, specific for the most affected side in asymmetric CP.

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The first years of life might be critical for encouraging independent walking in children with cerebral palsy (CP). We sought to identify mechanisms that may underlie the impaired development of walking in three young children with early brain lesions, at high risk of CP, via comprehensive instrumented longitudinal assessments of locomotor patterns and muscle activation during walking. We followed three children (P1–P3) with early brain lesions, at high risk of CP, during five consecutive gait analysis sessions covering a period of 1 to 2 years, starting before the onset of independent walking, and including the session during the first independent steps. In the course of the study, P1 did not develop CP, P2 was diagnosed with unilateral and P3 with bilateral CP. We monitored the early development of locomotor patterns over time via spatiotemporal gait parameters, intersegmental coordination (estimated via principal component analysis), electromyography activity, and muscle synergies (determined from 11 bilateral muscles via nonnegative matrix factorization). P1 and P2 started to walk independently at the corrected age of 14 and 22 months, respectively. In both of them, spatiotemporal gait parameters, intersegmental coordination, muscle activation patterns, and muscle synergy structure changed from supported to independent walking, although to a lesser extent when unilateral CP was diagnosed (P2), especially for the most affected leg. The child with bilateral CP (P3) did not develop independent walking, and all the parameters did not change over time. Our exploratory longitudinal study revealed differences in maturation of locomotor patterns between children with divergent developmental trajectories. We succeeded in identifying mechanisms that may underlie impaired walking development in very young children at high risk of CP. When verified in larger sample sizes, our approach may be considered a means to improve prognosis and to pinpoint possible targets for early intervention.

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Background: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often show impaired selective motor control (SMC) that induces limitations in motor function. Children with CP can improve aspects of pathological gait in an immediate response to visual biofeedback. It is not known, however, how these gait adaptations are achieved at the neural level, nor do we know the extent of SMC plasticity in CP. Aim: Investigate the underlying SMC and changes that may occur when gait is adapted with biofeedback. Methods: Twenty-three ambulatory children with CP and related (hereditary) forms of spastic paresis (Aged: 10.4 ± 3.1, 6–16 years, M: 16/F: 9) were challenged with real-time biofeedback to improve step length, knee extension, and ankle power while walking on an instrumented treadmill in a virtual reality environment. The electromyograms of eight superficial muscles of the leg were analyzed and synergies were further decomposed using non-negative matrix factorization (NNMF) using 1 to 5 synergies, to quantify SMC. Total variance accounted for (tVAF) was used as a measure of synergy complexity. An imposed four synergy solution was investigated further to compare similarity in weightings and timing patterns of matched paired synergies between baseline and biofeedback trials. Results: Despite changes in walking pattern, changes in synergies were limited. The number of synergies required to explain at least 90% of muscle activation increased significantly, however, the change in measures of tVAF₁ from baseline (0.75 ± 0.08) were less than ±2% between trials. In addition, within-subject similarity of synergies to baseline walking was high (>0.8) across all biofeedback trials. Conclusion: These results suggest that while gait may be adapted in an immediate response, SMC as quantified by synergy analysis is perhaps more rigidly impaired in CP. Subtle changes in synergies were identified; however, it is questionable if these are clinically meaningful at the level of an individual. Adaptations may be limited in the short term, and further investigation is essential to establish if long term training using biofeedback leads to adapted SMC.

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Cerebral palsy (CP) is a developmental motor disorder, caused by non‐progressive lesions in an immature brain, which affects the development of walking. Coordinated muscle activation during walking can be decomposed into muscle synergies, i.e. groups of muscles activated at the same time. The number of muscle synergies in typically developing children increases throughout the motor development from two (during neonate stepping) to four (in toddlers when they start to walk independently). We hypothesized that the muscle synergies in children with CP are different from the ones observed in typically developing children, even in this early stage of motor development. Patients and method To test this hypothesis, we recorded full‐body kinematics and bilateral electromyography (EMG) (14–28 muscles) during treadmill and over‐ground walking in five children with CP and five typically developing children (age range: 6–46mo). Patients were included based on high‐risk of developing CP with abnormalities in brain magnetic resonance imaging. To quantify the muscle synergies underlying bilateral muscle activations, we applied non‐negative matrix factorization to EMG envelopes pooled across steps. We compared the number of muscle synergies between children with CP and typically developing children based on the same age and similar walking experience. Results Our analysis revealed fewer muscle synergies in children with CP versus typically developing children. Conclusion These preliminary results suggest that children with CP use a different motor control strategy during gait than typically developing children.@en