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Review
. 2021 Jul 12;11(7):920.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci11070920.

Upper Limb Motor Planning in Individuals with Cerebral Palsy Aged between 3 and 21 Years Old: A Systematic Review

Ophélie Martinie  1   2 , Catherine Mercier  1   2 , Andrew M Gordon  3 , Maxime T Robert  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Upper Limb Motor Planning in Individuals with Cerebral Palsy Aged between 3 and 21 Years Old: A Systematic Review

Ophélie Martinie et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Individuals with cerebral palsy have difficulties performing activities of daily living. Beyond motor execution impairments, they exhibit motor planning deficits contributing to their difficulties. The objective of this review is to synthesize the behavioral evidence of motor planning deficits during an upper limb motor task in children, adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy aged between 3 and 21 years.

Methods: The inclusion criteria were: (1) including individuals with cerebral palsy from 3 to 21 years old; (2) assessing upper limb motor planning. Six databases were screened. The quality assessment of the studies was performed.

Results: Forty-six studies and 686 participants were included. Five articles have been identified as very high quality, 12 as high, 20 as moderate, six as low, three as very low. Force planning studies reported a deficit for the more affected hand but adequate performances for the less affected hand. Object-manipulation studies reported hand posture planning deficits irrespectively of the hand assessed.

Conclusions: Motor planning deficits has been shown in the more affected hand for force scaling, while the results for other variables showed overall deficits. Hence, variables affected by motor planning deficits in both hands should be considered in children with cerebral palsy to optimize intervention.

Keywords: anticipatory control; end-state-comfort effect; force scaling.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Motor planning variables found among the selected articles.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Selection process Prisma Flow Chart.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Study results for each upper limb according to the motor planning variables assessed and the quality of the study. The (a) panel presents data for the more affected hand, and the (b) panel for the less affected hand. The studies are classified by motor planning variables (Y-axis) and by level of study quality (X-axis). The red dots represent studies that found motor planning deficits and the green dots indicate results of unaffected motor planning as compared to TD children or similar performance between the less affected hand and the more affected hand.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Age tested for each study in each motor planning variable. RT = reaction time; VM = visuomotor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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