Effectiveness of hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy including lower extremities in the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy: a systematic review protocol.

Introduction: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a paediatric disorder with permanent impairment of movement and posture with a prevalence of about 2.11 in 1000 births in the world. Given the therapeutic effect of hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy including lower extremities (HABIT-ILE) in children with CP, a systematic review of the available literature on this topic is warranted.

Early intensive rehabilitation reverses locomotor disruption, decrease brain inflammation and induces neuroplasticity following experimental Cerebral Palsy.

Background: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a major cause of motor and cognitive disability in children due to injury to the developing brain. Early intensive sensorimotor rehabilitation has been shown to change brain structure and reduce CP symptoms severity. We combined environmental enrichment (EE) and treadmill training (TT) to observe the effects of a one-week program of sensorimotor stimulation (EETT) in animals exposed to a CP model and explored possible mechanisms involved in the functional recovery.

Effects of Therapies Involving Plyometric-Jump Training on Physical Fitness of Youth with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.

The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effects of plyometric-jump training (PJT) on the physical fitness of youth with cerebral palsy (CP) compared with controls (i.e., standard therapy).

Baby HABIT-ILE intervention: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial in infants aged 6-18 months with unilateral cerebral palsy.

Introduction: Research using animal models suggests that intensive motor skill training in infants under 2 years old with cerebral palsy (CP) may significantly reduce, or even prevent, maladaptive neuroplastic changes following brain injury. However, the effects of such interventions to tentatively prevent secondary neurological damages have never been assessed in infants with CP. This study aims to determine the effect of the baby Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities (baby HABIT-ILE) in infants with unilateral CP, compared with a control intervention.

Evaluation of ALBA device for upper extremity motor function in adults with subacute and chronic acquired brain injury: a randomised controlled trial protocol in a tertiary clinic of the metropolitan region of Chile.

Introduction: Stroke is a significant worldwide cause of death and a prevalent contributor to long-term disability among adults. Survivors commonly encounter a wide array of motor, sensory and cognitive impairments. Rehabilitation interventions, mainly targeting the upper extremities, include a wide array of components, although the evidence indicates that the intensity of practice and task-specific training play crucial roles in facilitating effective results.

Changes Induced by Early Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities in Young Children With Unilateral Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Intensive interventions are provided to young children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP), classically focused on the upper extremity despite the frequent impairment of gross motor function. Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities (HABIT-ILE) effectively improves manual dexterity and gross motor function in school-aged children.

Objective: To verify if HABIT-ILE would improve manual abilities in young children with UCP more than usual motor activity.

Short- to Long-Term Effects of Virtual Reality on Motor Skill Learning in Children With Cerebral Palsy: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Many studies have started integrating virtual reality (VR) into neurorehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy (CP). The results of the effects of VR on motor skill learning, including the short- to long-term results of relevant studies, must be pooled in a generic framework.

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the short- to long-term effects of therapies including VR on motor skill learning in children with CP.

Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities (HABIT-ILE) in adults with chronic stroke: protocol of a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Stroke causes multiple deficits including motor, sensitive and cognitive impairments, affecting also individual's social participation and independence in activities of daily living (ADL) impacting their quality of life. It has been widely recommended to use goal-oriented interventions with a high amount of task-specific repetitions. These interventions are generally focused only on the upper or lower extremities separately, despite the impairments are observed at the whole-body level and ADL are both frequently bimanual and may require moving around.

Impact of early brain lesions on the optic radiations in children with cerebral palsy.

Due to their early brain lesion, children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP) present important changes in brain gray and white matter, often manifested by perturbed sensorimotor functions. We predicted that type and side of the lesion could influence the microstructure of white matter tracts. Using diffusion tensor imaging in 40 children with USCP, we investigated optic radiation (OR) characteristics: fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD).

Effects of Sport-Based Exercise Interventions on Executive Function in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Exercise programs of moderate-to-vigorous intensity have been shown to improve the cognitive performance of older people. However, the specific effects of sports-based exercise programs on cognitive performance, particularly executive functions, remain unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of sports-based exercise programs on executive functions in older adults using a systematic review and meta-analysis of the scientific literature.

Mirror movements after bimanual intensive therapy in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: A randomized controlled trial.

Aim: To investigate potential changes in mirror movements after Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremity (HABIT-ILE) training in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP).

Method: Thirty-one children with unilateral CP (mean age 9 years 4 months, SD 4 years 3 months; range 5 years 4 months-17 years 3 months; 14 females, 17 males) were randomized to either a control or treatment group. After allocation, children were assessed three times: before (T1, baseline) and after (T2) a 2-week interval and again at 3 months after T1 (T3) as follow-up.

Efficacy of hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy including lower extremities (HABIT-ILE) in young children with bilateral cerebral palsy (GMFCS III-IV) in a low and middle-income country: protocol of a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Cerebral palsy (CP) is highly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where clinically-based studies have shown a considerable over-representation of the severe bilateral subtype. However, children's access to rehabilitation care is limited by many local factors, notably the lacking of rehabilitation services, insufficient knowledge of caregivers and financial constraints. In such a context there is an urgent need for studies of the evidence-based rehabilitation approach.

Intensive Bimanual Intervention for Children Who Have Undergone Hemispherectomy: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: To conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of an intensive bimanual intervention on upper limb function in children who have undergone hemispherectomy.

Methods: Thirteen children received 90 hours of intensive bimanual training (Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy, HABIT). The Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function (JTTHF), Box and Block Test (BBT), Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA), ABILHAND-Kids, and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) were assessed by a masked clinician twice before, immediately, and 6 months after treatment.

Beat Detection Recruits the Visual Cortex in Early Blind Subjects.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, here we monitored the brain activity in 12 early blind subjects and 12 blindfolded control subjects, matched for age, gender and musical experience, during a beat detection task. Subjects were required to discriminate regular ("beat") from irregular ("no beat") rhythmic sequences composed of sounds or vibrotactile stimulations. In both sensory modalities, the brain activity differences between the two groups involved heteromodal brain regions including parietal and frontal cortical areas and occipital brain areas, that were recruited in the early blind group only.

Brain activation changes following motor training in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: An fMRI study.

Background: Intensive motor-learning-based interventions have demonstrated efficacy for improving motor function in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP). Although this improvement has been associated mainly with neuroplastic changes in the primary sensori-motor cortices, this plasticity may also involve a wider fronto-parietal network for motor learning.

Objective: To determine whether hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy including lower extremities (HABIT-ILE) induces brain activation changes in an extensive network for motor skill learning and whether these changes are related to functional changes observed after HABIT-ILE.

Protocol of changes induced by early Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities (e-HABIT-ILE) in pre-school children with bilateral cerebral palsy: a multisite randomized controlled trial.

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP), which is the leading cause of motor disability during childhood, can produce sensory and cognitive impairments at different degrees. Most recent therapeutic interventions for these patients have solely focused on upper extremities (UE), although more than 60% of these patients present lower extremities (LE) deficits. Recently, a new therapeutic concept, Hand-arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities (HABIT-ILE), has been proposed, involving the constant stimulation of UE and LE.

Motor Skill Training May Restore Impaired Corticospinal Tract Fibers in Children With Cerebral Palsy.

. In children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP), the fibers of the corticospinal tract (CST) emerging from the lesioned hemisphere are damaged following the initial brain injury. The extent to which the integrity of these fibers is restorable with training is unknown.

Interrater Reliability of Activity Questionnaires After an Intensive Motor-Skill Learning Intervention for Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Objective: To investigate the reliability of parents-reported activity questionnaires after a motor-skill learning intervention for children with cerebral palsy (CP). We hypothesize that the intervention process might influence parental judgment.

Design: Double-blind randomized trial.

Reliability and responsiveness of the Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function and the Box and Block Test for children with cerebral palsy.

Aim: To assess the reliability and to evaluate the responsiveness of both the Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function (JTTHF) and the Box and Block Test (BBT) in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

Method: In this retrospective study, the reliability analyses were conducted with paired t-tests considering a short (mean 14d) and a long (mean 120d) time in between two assessment periods. In addition, an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the level of congruency.

Impairments of Visuospatial Attention in Children with Unilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy.

Aim: This observational study aimed at assessing the prevalence of visuospatial attention deficits in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP), taking into consideration the affected hemibody and the localization of the brain lesion.

Method: Seventy-five children with USCP were assessed with four visuospatial attention tests: star cancellation, Ogden figure copy, line bisection, and proprioceptive pointing.

Results: A majority (64%) of children with USCP presented a deficit in at least one test compared to the reference values.

A key role of the prefrontal cortex in the maintenance of chronic tinnitus: An fMRI study using a Stroop task.

Introduction: Since we recently showed in behavioural tasks that the top-down cognitive control was specifically altered in tinnitus sufferers, here we wanted to establish the link between this impaired executive function and brain alterations in the frontal cortex in tinnitus patients.

Method: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we monitored the brain activity changes in sixteen tinnitus patients (TP) and their control subjects (CS) while they were performing a spatial Stroop task, both in audition and vision.

Results: We observed that TP differed from CS in their functional recruitment of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, BA46), the cingulate gyrus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC, BA10).

Cortical Plasticity and Olfactory Function in Early Blindness.

Over the last decade, functional brain imaging has provided insight to the maturation processes and has helped elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in brain plasticity in the absence of vision. In case of congenital blindness, drastic changes occur within the deafferented "visual" cortex that starts receiving and processing non visual inputs, including olfactory stimuli. This functional reorganization of the occipital cortex gives rise to compensatory perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that help blind persons achieve perceptual tasks, leading to superior olfactory abilities in these subjects.