Differences in somatosensory processing due to dominant hemispheric motor impairment in cerebral palsy

Background: Although cerebral palsy (CP) is usually defined as a group of permanent motor disorders due to non-progressive disturbances in the developing fetal or infant brain, recent research has shown that CP individuals are also characterized by altered somatosensory perception, increased pain an...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Riquelme, Inmaculada, Padron, Ivan, Cifre, Ignasi, González-Roldán, Ana María, Montoya, Pedro
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Conselleria de Salut i Consum del Govern de les Illes Balears
Repositorio:Docusalut
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docusalut.com:20.500.13003/11366
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13003/11366
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Somatosensory Disorders
Child
Movement Disorders
Male
Adult
Cerebral Palsy
Dominance, Cerebral
Female
Humans
Child, Preschool
Adolescent
Somatosensory Cortex
Parálisis Cerebral
Trastornos Somatosensoriales
Humanos
Corteza Somatosensorial
Preescolar
Masculino
Trastornos del Movimiento
Dominancia Cerebral
Niño
Adolescente
Adulto
Femenino
Somatosensory processing
Cerebral palsy
Motor impairment
Hemispheric asymmetry
Descripción
Sumario:Background: Although cerebral palsy (CP) is usually defined as a group of permanent motor disorders due to non-progressive disturbances in the developing fetal or infant brain, recent research has shown that CP individuals are also characterized by altered somatosensory perception, increased pain and abnormal activation of cortical somatosensory areas. The present study was aimed to examine hemispheric differences on somatosensory brain processing in individuals with bilateral CP and lateralized motor impairments compared with healthy controls. Nine CP individuals with left-dominant motor impairments (LMI) (age range 5-28 yrs), nine CP individuals with right-dominant motor impairments (RMI) (age range 7-29 yrs), and 12 healthy controls (age range 5-30 yrs) participated in the study. Proprioception, touch and pain thresholds, as well as somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) elicited by tactile stimulation of right and left lips and thumbs were compared. Results: Pain sensitivity was higher, and lip stimulation elicited greater beta power and more symmetrical SEP amplitudes in individuals with CP than in healthy controls. In addition, although there was no significant differences between individuals with RMI and LMI on pain or touch sensitivity, lip and thumb stimulation elicited smaller beta power and more symmetrical SEP amplitudes in individuals with LMI than with RMI. Conclusions: Our data revealed that brain processing of somatosensory stimulation was abnormal in CP individuals. Moreover, this processing was different depending if they presented right-or left-dominant motor impairments, suggesting that different mechanisms of sensorimotor reorganization should be involved in CP depending on dominant side of motor impairment.