ArticleJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2019
Muscle synergies demonstrate only minimal changes after treatment in cerebral palsy.
Article in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Muscle Synergies During Walking in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in physiology · 2020Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Game-Based Training of Selective Voluntary Motor Control in Children With Upper Motor Neuron Lesions: Randomized Multiple Baseline Design Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Trial
- Changes in leg cycling muscle synergies after training augmented by functional electrical stimulation in subacute stroke survivors: a pilot study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2020Trial
- Walking Environment and Speed Differentially Change More Affected Limb Dynamic Motor Control in Children With Cerebral Palsy.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2026Article
- Influence of surgical intervention on pre- and post-surgery patient specific muscle synergies in children with cerebral palsy.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Impact of an occupational back-support exoskeleton on muscle synergies during a pick-up movement.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Outcomes of selective dorsal rhizotomy in ambulatory children and young people with cerebral palsy: A scoping review.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2026Article
- Effects of different post-activation potentiation strategies on forehand stroke performance in elite squash players: a muscle synergy and time-frequency coherence analysis.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Muscle synergies are largely unaffected in individuals with diabetes who do not have diabetic neuropathy.Clinical biomechanics (Bristol, Avon) · 2025Article
- Can muscle synergies shed light on the mechanisms underlying motor gains in response to robot-assisted gait training in children with cerebral palsy?Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Motor modules are largely unaffected by pathological walking biomechanics: a simulation study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Does body weight support improve neural and biomechanical measures during treadmill gait in children with unilateral cerebral palsy?Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2025Article
- Minimum Electromyography Sensor Set Needed to Identify Age-Related Impairments in the Neuromuscular Control of Walking Using the Dynamic Motor Control Index.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Does crouch alter the effects of neuromuscular impairments on gait? A simulation study.Journal of biomechanics · 2024Article
- Motor patterns of patients with spinal muscular atrophy suggestive of sensory and corticospinal contributions to the development of locomotor muscle synergies.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Changes in walking function and neural control following pelvic cancer surgery with reconstruction.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2024Article
- How Do People with Limited Movement Personalize Upper-Body Gestures? Considerations for the Design of Personalized and Accessible Gesture Interfaces.ASSETS. Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies · 2023Article
- Comparison of the forward and sideways locomotor patterns in children with Cerebral Palsy.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Motor control complexity can be dynamically simplified during gait pattern exploration using motor control-based biofeedback.Journal of neurophysiology · 2023Article
- A longitudinal analysis of selective motor control during gait in individuals with cerebral palsy and the relation to gait deviations.PloS one · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundChildren with cerebral palsy (CP) have altered synergies compared to typically-developing peers, reflecting different neuromuscular control strategies used to move. While these children receive a variety of treatments to improve gait, whether synergies change after treatment, or are associated with treatment outcomes, remains unknown.
methodsWe evaluated synergies for 147 children with CP before and after three common treatments: botulinum toxin type-A injection (n = 52), selective dorsal rhizotomy (n = 38), and multi-level orthopaedic surgery (n = 57). Changes in synergy complexity were measured by the number of synergies required to explain > 90% of the total variance in electromyography data and total variance accounted for by one synergy. Synergy weights and activations before and after treatment were compared using the cosine similarity relative to average synergies of 31 typically-developing (TD) peers.
resultsThere were minimal changes in synergies after treatment despite changes in walking patterns. Number of synergies did not change significantly for any treatment group. Total variance accounted for by one synergy increased (i.e., moved further from TD peers) after botulinum toxin type-A injection (1.3%) and selective dorsal rhizotomy (1.9%), but the change was small. Synergy weights did not change for any treatment group (average 0.001 ± 0.10), but synergy activations after selective dorsal rhizotomy did change and were less similar to TD peers (- 0.03 ± 0.07). Only changes in synergy activations were associated with changes in gait kinematics or walking speed after treatment. Children with synergy activations more similar to TD peers after treatment had greater improvements in gait.
conclusionsWhile many of these children received significant surgical procedures and prolonged rehabilitation, the minimal changes in synergies after treatment highlight the challenges in altering neuromuscular control in CP. Development of treatment strategies that directly target impaired control or are optimized to an individual's unique control may be required to improve walking function.
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Registered trials
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