INFANTPATTERNS · Development of kinematic and muscle patterns in preterm infants

Development of kinematic and muscle patterns in preterm infants

INFANTPATTERNS is a cross-disciplinary project which developed and applied innovative methods at the interface of neuroscience and engineering to study the development of motor behaviour in preterm born infants. Preterm born infants are more likely to develop long-term neurodisabilities such as cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy often results from perinatal brain injury, is associated with a spectrum of motor impairments including poor coordination, muscle stiffness and weakness, and currently, cannot be treated. Some of this treatment failure is likely due to a fundamental lack of knowledge about early human sensorimotor development, as the evolution of motion patterns in the first months following birth has never been systematically studied. This is crucial, as motion control ultimately depends on selective muscle activation which in turn depends on control from the central nervous system. The overall objective of INFANTPATTERNS is to create an innovative qualitative assessment and understanding of the developing motor function in preterm infants, which has high potential for significant clinical and scientific impacts. The specific aims of the project are to identify brain, kinematics, and muscle patterns during the first months following birth; and to systematically study the development of these patterns in the perinatal period. In the newborn period, infants exhibit spontaneous but stereotyped movements of the body during which different limbs move simultaneously, known as general movements. Limb motor and sensory functions are processed in specific brain regions. The neural processing related to different body parts is reflected in patterns of functional connectivity, which in adults is strongest between brain areas corresponding to the same limb in opposite sides of the body. In INFANTPATTERNS we found that, in the brain of preterm born infants, in absence of injury, a spatial organization of functional connectivity is already present and matures across the preterm period to achieve an adult-like configuration by the normal time of birth. We also found that there is high correlation between movements of the same limb in opposite sides of the body and both limbs in the same side of the body. The patterns we identified constitute a benchmark that could be used in future to investigate if their alterations correlate with specific neurodevelopmental complications. We also developed sensors to measure force exerted by infants and the corresponding muscle activity (known as electromyography, EMG). Mechanical flexibility and material properties make the EMG sensors suitable to comply with the delicate skin of infants. This novel technology will be used in future for the identification on muscle patterns in infants.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз