Effects of short-term piano training on measures of finger tapping, somatosensory perception and motor-related brain activity in patients with cerebral palsy.

Playing a musical instrument demands the integration of sensory and perceptual information with motor processes in order to produce a harmonic musical piece. The diversity of brain mechanisms involved and the joyful character of playing an instrument make musical instrument training a potential vehicle for neurorehabilitation of motor skills in patients with cerebral palsy (CP). This clinical condition is characterized by motor impairments that can affect, among others, manual function, and limit severely the execution of basic daily activities.

Mobile communication jacket for people with severe speech impairment.

Purpose: Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder caused by damage to motor control areas of the developing brain during early childhood. Motor disorders can also affect the ability to produce clear speech and to communicate. The aim of this study was to develop and to test a prototype of an assistive tool with an embedded mobile communication device to support patients with severe speech impairments.

Implicit Learning of a Finger Motor Sequence by Patients with Cerebral Palsy After Neurofeedback.

Facilitation of implicit learning of a hand motor sequence after a single session of neurofeedback training of alpha power recorded from the motor cortex has been shown in healthy individuals (Ros et al., Biological Psychology 95:54-58, 2014). This facilitation effect could be potentially applied to improve the outcome of rehabilitation in patients with impaired hand motor function.

The Case for Musical Instrument Training in Cerebral Palsy for Neurorehabilitation.

Recent imaging studies in cerebral palsy (CP) have described several brain structural changes, functional alterations, and neuroplastic processes that take place after brain injury during early development. These changes affect motor pathways as well as sensorimotor networks. Several of these changes correlate with behavioral measures of motor and sensory disability.

Altered lower leg muscle activation patterns in patients with cerebral palsy during cycling on an ergometer.

Objective: Cycling on a recumbent ergometer constitutes one of the most popular rehabilitation exercises in cerebral palsy (CP). However, no control is performed on how muscles are being used during training. Given that patients with CP present altered muscular activity patterns during cycling or walking, it is possible that an incorrect pattern of muscle activation is being promoted during rehabilitation cycling.

Development of congenital clubfoot during growth: a long-term study on the basis of pedobarography, biomechanics, and magnetic resonance imaging measurements of muscle volumes.

The aim of this study was to clarify the degree to which the operated congenital asymptomatic clubfoot still shows malpositions or whether it approaches a physiological development with increasing age. Clubfeet of 12 children were examined repeatedly over up to 10 years using pedobarography. The muscle volumes of the lower legs were investigated with MRI and compared with those of a healthy control group.

Piano training in youths with hand motor impairments after damage to the developing brain.

Damage to the developing brain may lead to impairment of the hand motor function and negatively impact on patients' quality of life. Development of manual dexterity and finger and hand motor function may be promoted by learning to play the piano. The latter brings together music with the intensive training of hand coordination and fine finger mobility.

Sensory Feedback Training for Improvement of Finger Perception in Cerebral Palsy.

Purpose. To develop and to test a feedback training system for improvement of tactile perception and coordination of fingers in children and youth with cerebral palsy. Methods.

Lung vital capacity and oxygen saturation in adults with cerebral palsy.

Background: Individuals with infantile cerebral palsy have multiple disabilities. The most conspicuous syndrome being investigated from many aspects is motor movement disorder with a spastic gait pattern. The lung function of adults with spasticity attracts less attention in the literature.

Optimization of electric bicycle for youths with disabilities.

Cerebral palsy is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that affect a person's ability to move and to maintain balance and posture. People with cerebral palsy have also perception and space orientation deficits so that special assistance devices should be developed to compensate these handicaps. The objective was to optimize an adapted electric bicycle (E-bike) for youths with neurodevelopmental disorders.

fMRI assessment of neuroplasticity in youths with neurodevelopmental-associated motor disorders after piano training.

Background: Damage to the developing brain may lead to lifelong motor impairments namely of the hand function. Playing an instrument combines the execution of gross and fine motor movements with direct auditory feedback of performance and with emotional value. This motor-associated sensory information may work as a self-control of motor performance in therapeutic settings.

Eye movement during reading in young adults with cerebral palsy measured with eye tracking.

Background: Cerebral palsy is a nonprogressive brain disorder associated with lifelong motor impairments and often with cognitive deficits, impaired communication, and impaired sensory perception. Vision deficits, in particular, occur frequently in cerebral palsy and can lead to reading difficulties.

Objective: Investigate the extent to which the motor impairments in this clinical group affect patients' ability to read.

Mathematical modelling of cerebral blood circulation and cerebral autoregulation: towards preventing intracranial hemorrhages in preterm newborns.

Impaired cerebral autoregulation leads to fluctuations in cerebral blood flow, which can be especially dangerous for immature brain of preterm newborns. In this paper, two mathematical models of cerebral autoregulation are discussed. The first one is an enhancement of a vascular model proposed by Piechnik et al.