Afferent and efferent control of stance and gait: developmental changes in children

Abstract

Comparisons were made between the cerebral potentials (CPs) and EMG responses of leg muscles evoked by perturbation impulses during stance and gait in normal children aged from 1 to 10 years. Changes in the efferent arm of the reflex systems during development were reflected in parallel changes with age of the afferent system, expressed in the CP: in the youngest children (1–2 years of age) monosynaptic stretch reflex potentials appeared following perturbations during both stance and gait, together with a reduced level of longer latency EMG responses. The CP, too, had a profile that did not, at this early stage, differ in either condition. In children from 6 to 10 years of age, the adult pattern was reached, eith the suppression of monosynaptic stretch reflexes and the early part of the CP during gait perturbation. This is interpreted as an inhibition of group I afferents at both segmental and supraspinal levels, involving suppression of both segmental stretch reflexes and group I signals to supraspinal centres. This control of afferent information had yet to be established in early infancy. The age group from 2 to 6 years showed progressive changes, with an increase in both the level and phasic nature of polysynaptic EMG responses and a corresponding transformation of the latency and shape of the CP. It is suggested that maturation of compensatory EMG responses during gait is achieved by the establishment of descending inhibition of group I afferents and facilitation of polysynaptic spinal reflexes via group II afferents.