Visual guidance of interceptive actions in children with spastic unilateral cerebral palsy is influenced by the side of the lesion

Abstract

Purpose. To determine the type of visual information used by children with spastic unilateral cerebral palsy (SUCP) in order to intercept a ball and to verify whether this information was dependent on the side of the lesion. More specifically, it was examined whether the interception was controlled on the basis of a time or a distance strategy, initiating the catch when the ball is at a fixed time interval or at a fixed distance from the point of interception.

Methods. Three groups of children were included. Children with either a left sided (LHL) or a right sided lesion (RHL) and children without a lesion [typically developing (TD)] intercepted a ball from a conveyor belt. In order to intercept the ball successfully they had to walk and to reach for the ball at the interception point 4 m away.

Results. Children with LHL had a longer decision time and started their reach movement earlier. In 56% of the children with LHL a distance strategy was observed, while in the TD and the children with RHL predominantly a time strategy was found.

Conclusions. The side of the lesion influences the visual information used to initiate interceptive actions.

Keywords:

• Children
• cerebral palsy
• visual information
• time strategy
• distance strategy

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the participants and their parents. We thank Johannes Verheijden (BOSK) for helping us to get in contact with the participants, Siro Otten, Hans de Koning and Leon Schutte for their technical support during the experiments.