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Altered corpus callosum structure in adolescents with cerebral palsy : connection to gait and balance

Year of publication

2023

Authors

Jaatela, Julia; Nurmi, Timo; Vallinoja, Jaakko; Mäenpää, Helena; Sairanen, Viljami; Piitulainen, Harri;

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disorder in childhood. Recent studies in children with CP have associated weakened sensorimotor performance with impairments in the major brain white-matter (WM) structure, corpus callosum (CC). However, the relationship between CC structure and lower extremity performance, specifcally gait and balance, remains unknown. This study investigated the transcallosal WM structure and lower limb motor stability performance in adolescents aged 10–18 years with spastic hemiplegic (n=18) or diplegic (n=13) CP and in their age-matched controls (n=34). The modern difusion-weighted MRI analysis included the difusivity properties of seven CC subparts and the transcallosal lower limb sensorimotor tract of the dominant hemisphere. Children with CP had comprehensive impairments in the cross-sectional area, fractional anisotropy, and mean difusivity of the CC and sensorimotor tract. Additionally, the extent of WM alterations varied between hemiplegic and diplegic subgroups, which was seen especially in the fractional anisotropy values along the sensorimotor tract. The difusion properties of transcallosal WM were further associated with static stability in all groups, and with dynamic stability in healthy controls. Our novel results clarify the mechanistic role of the corpus callosum in adolescents with and without CP ofering valuable insight into the complex interplay between the brain’s WM organization and motor performance. A better understanding of the brain basis of weakened stability performance could, in addition, improve the specifcity of clinical diagnosis and targeted rehabilitation in CP.
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Organizations and authors

Aalto University

Piitulainen Harri Orcid -palvelun logo

Vallinoja Jaakko Orcid -palvelun logo

Jaatela Julia Orcid -palvelun logo

Nurmi Timo Orcid -palvelun logo

University of Jyväskylä

Piitulainen Harri Orcid -palvelun logo

Nurmi Timo

University of Helsinki

Piitulainen Harri

Mäenpää Helena

Sairanen Viljami

Helsinki University Hospital Catchment Area

Piitulainen Harri

Mäenpää Helena

Sairanen Viljami

Publication type

Publication format

Article

Parent publication type

Journal

Article type

Original article

Audience

Scientific

Peer-reviewed

Peer-Reviewed

MINEDU's publication type classification code

A1 Journal article (refereed), original research

Publication channel information

Parent publication name

Brain structure & function

Volume

228

Issue

8

Pages

1901-1915

​Publication forum

52629

​Publication forum level

1

Open access

Open access in the publisher’s service

Yes

Open access of publication channel

Partially open publication channel

License of the publisher’s version

CC BY

Self-archived

Yes

Other information

Fields of science

Sport and fitness sciences; Neurosciences; Gynaecology and paediatrics

Keywords

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Publication country

Germany

Internationality of the publisher

International

Language

English

International co-publication

No

Co-publication with a company

No

DOI

10.1007/s00429-023-02692-1

The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection

Yes