Abstract
Purpose
Fatigue is frequent in adults with cerebral palsy (CP) and it is unclear whether this is due to altered corticospinal drive. We aimed to compare changes in corticospinal drive following sustained muscle contractions in adults with CP and neurologically intact (NI) adults.
Methods
Fourteen adults with CP [age 37.6 (10.1), seven females, GMFCS levels I–II] and ten NI adults [age 35.4 (10.3), 6 females] performed 1-min static dorsiflexion at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) before and after a submaximal contraction at 60% MVC. Electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) from the anterior tibial muscle were analyzed to quantify the coupling, expressed by corticomuscular coherence (CMC).
Results
Adults with CP had lower MVCs but similar time to exhaustion during the relative load of the fatigability trial. Both groups exhibited fatigability-related changes in EMG median frequency and EMG amplitude. The CP group showed lower beta band (16–35 Hz) CMC before fatigability, but both groups decreased beta band CMC following fatigability. There was a linear correlation between decrease of beta band CMC and fatigability-related increase in EMG.
Conclusion
Fatigability following static contraction until failure was related to decreased beta band CMC in both NI adults and adults with CP. Our findings indicate that compensatory mechanisms to fatigability are present in both groups, and that fatigability affects the corticospinal drive in the same way. We suggest that the perceived physical fatigue in CP is related to the high relative load of activities of daily living rather than any particular physiological mechanism.
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This study was funded by a grant from the Elsass Foundation.
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CRF, JBN and JL conceived and designed the research. CRF, KJJ and JL conducted experiments and CRF and KKJ performed the initial data processing. CRF, KJJ, ANK, JBN and JL all participated in the interpretation of results. CRF wrote the first draft of the manuscript and created figures. All authors read and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version.
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Forman, C.R., Jacobsen, K.J., Karabanov, A.N. et al. Corticomuscular coherence is reduced in relation to dorsiflexion fatigability to the same extent in adults with cerebral palsy as in neurologically intact adults. Eur J Appl Physiol 122, 1459–1471 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-04938-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-04938-y