Grip in Children with Congential Hemiplegia

Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair published research comparing predictive and reactive control of grip force in children with congenital hemiplegia. The precision grip of 12 children (ages 10-16 years) with hemiplegia were compared to a control group in two different conditions - predictive and reactive. For the predictive control, the child triggered the drop of an object to grip before it fell completely. For the reactive control, the examiner triggered the drop of the object for the child to grip before it fell completely. Results indicated the following:
1. Predictive grip in the hemiplegic hand was intact but was changed after impact "suggesting an inability to anticipate the consequences of a dynamic perturbation".
2. Under the reactive conditions, a delay was seen in the hemiplegic hand
3. Both predictive and reactive conditions were intact in the non hemiplegic hand.

Reference: Bleyenheuft, Yannick, Thonnard, Jean-Louis Predictive and Reactive Control of Precision Grip in Children With Congenital Hemiplegia Neurorehabil Neural Repair 2010 24: 318-327