Muscle responses to seated perturbations for typically developing infants and those at risk for motor delays

Abstract

This study examined spatial and temporal organization of muscle activity in response to seated forward platform perturbations in typically developing (TD) infants and in infants at risk for ongoing neuromotor delays. Twelve high‐risk (HR) infants (six males, six females) and 12 TD infants (nine males, three females) aged 8 to 10 months (corrected for prematurity), who were all independent sitters, participated in this study. Surface electromyograms recorded muscle responses to forward perturbation in the neck, trunk, and leg (6cm amplitude, 12cm/s). Center of pressure measures were also recorded. The TD infants demonstrated significantly more phasic responses than the HR infants, who had more trials with tonic activity and more trials with no burst of muscle activity (Mann‐Whitney U test, two‐tailed, p=0.006). The TD infants demonstrated caudalcephalo, directionally appropriate recruitment patterns more often than the HR infants. There were some similarities between the two groups, with no significant difference between any of the center of pressure measures or onset latencies. Results suggest that postural development in HR infants with motor delays is complex. Some elements of seated postural control appear to be developmentally appropriate, e.g. presence of phasic activity in directionally appropriate muscles sequenced in a caudalcephalo pattern. However, frequency of these age appropriate responses was significantly lower in HR infants, who demonstrated many normal, albeit immature, responses, such as cephalocaudally sequenced muscle activity.