Cerebellar Motor Function in Spina Bifida Meningomyelocele

Hand dysfunction has been reported to be present in myelomeningocele children, yet the type, extent, and cause of such dysfunction have remained unclear. This study was undertaken to discover whether motor dysfunction was present in the upper limbs of children with the diagnosis spina bifida myelomeningocele with lesions below the spinal level T4. Tests of manual muscle strength and grip strength indicated that spina bifida children have inferior motor function when compared with a control group of individually matched normal children. When the spina bifida group was divided on the basis of presence or absence of hydrocephalus it was apparent that the hydrocephalic children had poorer muscle power. The non-hydrocephalic children, however, did not have normal motor function. Thus the level of the lesion, and the presence of hydrocephalus, could not be identified as the prime cause of hand dysfunction discovered in the sample studied.

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Upper limb cerebellar motor function in children with spina bifida

Child s Nervous System ◽

10.1007/s00381-009-0991-7 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 67-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Derryn Jewell ◽

Jack M. Fletcher ◽

Caitlin E. V. Mahy ◽

Ross Hetherington ◽

Daune MacGregor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spina Bifida ◽

Motor Function ◽

Upper Limb

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Auditory interhemispheric transfer in relation to patterns of partial agenesis and hypoplasia of the corpus callosum in spina bifida meningomyelocele

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617708080958 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 771-781 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

H. JULIA HANNAY ◽

AMY WALKER ◽

MAUREEN DENNIS ◽

LARRY KRAMER ◽

SUSAN BLASER ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spina Bifida ◽

Corpus Callosum ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Functional Laterality ◽

Left Handed ◽

Right Ear Advantage ◽

The Right ◽

Spina Bifida Meningomyelocele ◽

Normal Controls

Spina bifida meningomyelocele with hydrocephalus (SBM) is commonly associated with anomalies of the corpus callosum (CC). We describe MRI patterns of regional CC agenesis and relate CC anomalies to functional laterality based on a dichotic listening test in 90 children with SBM and 27 typically developing controls. Many children with SBM (n = 40) showed regional CC anomalies in the form of agenesis of the rostrum and/or splenium, and a smaller number (n = 20) showed hypoplasia (thinning) of all CC regions (rostrum, genu, body, and splenium). The expected right ear advantage (REA) was exhibited by normal controls and children with SBM having a normal or hypoplastic splenium. It was not shown by children with SBM who were left handed, missing a splenium, or had a higher level spinal cord lesion. Perhaps the right hemisphere of these children is more involved in processing some aspects of linguistic stimuli. (JINS, 2008, 14, 771–781.)

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Perception of strong-meter and weak-meter rhythms in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617709090845 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. 521-528 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

TALAR HOPYAN ◽

E. GLENN SCHELLENBERG ◽

MAUREEN DENNIS

Keyword(s):

Spina Bifida ◽

Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽

Perception And Action ◽

Research Question ◽

Central Processing ◽

Spina Bifida Meningomyelocele ◽

The Brain

AbstractNeurodevelopmental disorders such as spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) are often associated with dysrhythmic movement. We studied rhythm discrimination in 21 children with SBM and in 21 age-matched controls, with the research question being whether both groups showed a strong-meter advantage whereby rhythm discrimination is better for rhythms with a strong-meter, in which onsets of longer intervals occurred on the beat, than those with a weak-meter, in which onsets of longer intervals occurred off the beat. Compared to controls, the SBM group was less able to discriminate strong-meter rhythms, although they performed comparably in discriminating weak-meter rhythms. The attenuated strong-meter advantage in children with SBM shows that their rhythm deficits occur at the level of both perception and action, and may represent a central processing disruption of the brain mechanisms for rhythm. (JINS, 2009, 15, 521–528.)

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