Motor learning in children with cerebral palsy with feedback of principal component space of reduced dimension

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common developmental motor disorder in children characterized by atypical or abnormal muscle tone, weakness, and reduced selective motor control. This results in abnormal movements and postures. Augmented therapeutic modalities to train selective motor control are needed in CP rehabilitation. We investigated motor learning in children with CP (n=9, ages 8-12, GMFCS =I,II) by providing feedback in a virtual reality (VR) environment of reduced dimensions consisting only of the first two principal components (PCs) of the space of target postures from a group of typically developing children (n=8, ages 8-12). After six training sessions we observed the following changes in the children’s motor control: a) increased variance in the first principal component; b) reduced variance in the non- relevant principal components; and c) increased the number of target matches. These results suggest that feedback of reduced dimensions by remapping space into its main principal components in a game like environment may increase selective motor control in children with CP.