Locomotion skills in adults with cerebral palsy
Reidun Jahnsen, L. Villien, T. Egeland, J.K. Stanghelle, I. Holm
Bok Engelsk 2004
| Utgitt | 2004
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|---|---|
| Omfang | 7 s.
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| Opplysninger | Deterioration of locomotion skills in adults with CP was investigated in Paper Ill. Functional skilIs, such as locomotion, develop and change during life, dependent on the personal resources of each individual, and on their interests and cultural context (35). Functional skilIs consist of complex planning and performance, which demand co-operation between the central nervous system (CNS) and the other physiological and psychological systems of the body. The learning of functional skills depends on self-initiated voluntary activity that is meaningful for each individual (36). This creates new synapses and effective signal pathways in the CNS, and the more activity and problem-solving that is going on, the more complex the web of synapses becomes. If activity stops, for instance because of loosing interest or because of an accident, the synapses will deteriorate (36). Functional skills will also deteriorate to some extent in all adults with age. However, skills that are actively and regularly used are developed and preserved even in older adulthood (35-36).If a brain lesion causes perceptual problems and lack of motor control, this will affect the development and preservation of functional skilIs (35-36). When the CNS has difficulties in learning how to plan and perform a specific task, the movements will become uncoordinated and cost a lot of extra energy. The CNS will not be able to develop effective signal pathways regarding how many and which motor units to activate, the balance and stiming of muscle activation, the grading of the contraction, and how much power to produce for specific actions (36). This may create vicious circles of no use, disuse or overuse of different systems of the body. Secondary impairment problems, such as contractures of muscles and deformities of joints and bones may develop because of spasticity and/or immobilisation (13-26, 37), and make it difficult both to develop and preserve functional skills. On the other hand, a theory of "physiological burn-out" caused by continuously high energy consumption was hypothesised by Pimm (25), as one potential cause of early deterioration.
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| Emner |
