Electromyographic Evaluation of Breathing-based Neck Training in Children with Cerebral Palsy
Abstract
This research aimed to evaluate the effects of Breathing-Based Neck Movement Training (BBNMT) on neck and trunk muscle activation during speech in children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy (SCP). Sixteen children with SCP (eight training, eight controls) participated in this study. The BBNMT consisted of 30 min of training and 15 sessions over 5 weeks. BBNMT consisted of head-neck flexion, neck rotation, lateral flexion, and neck extension. The control group did not perform any additional program. We performed electromyography for neck and trunk muscle activity: Upper Trapezius (UT), Sternocleidomastoid (SCM), and Rectus Abdominis (RA). Children sat comfortably and were instructed to pronounce a vowel [a:] as long as possible. EMG analysis showed that muscle activation significantly differed between test sessions and between muscle types (p < 0.05). Additionally, it significantly differed in the interaction of test sessions and muscle type (p < 0.05). In the post-hoc test, UT and the SCM were significantly lesser in the post-test and follow-up than in the pre-test (p < 0.05), and RA was significantly greater in the post-test and follow-up than in the pre-test (p < 0.05). RA was significantly lesser than UT and SCM in all test sessions (p < 0.05).