Topographical working memory in children and adolescents with motor disabilities

Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate topographical working memory in individuals with motor disabilities. Methods: Topographical working memory was investigated using the Walking Corsi Test in 89 participants with motor disability, mean age 11.5 years, of which 40 with cerebral palsy, 31 with spina bifida, and 18 with orthopaedic or peripheral symptoms. The participants were grouped according to everyday mobility, i.e. walking outdoors, walking indoors, and using wheelchair. A control group constituted 120 typically developing participants, mean age 9.9 years. Results: Individuals with spina bifida, orthopaedic or peripheral symptoms as well as typically developing participants performed significantly larger walking spans than the cerebral palsy group. With respect to mobility, those walking outdoors had significantly larger span than those walking indoors and those using wheelchair for mobility. Conclusions: Participants with outdoor walking in the community, apart from type of motor disability, seem to have improved topographic memory compared to individuals who don’t walk outside and individuals who are mobile through wheelchair. The results highlight the question of development of spatial cognition to enhance participation in social environments. Future research should focus on prematurity in the cerebral palsy group, and on hydrocephalus in the spina bifida group

Advantages in Mathematically Weighting Waterfowl Food Habits Data

The relative importance of various foods occurring in the diet of blue-winged teal (Anas discors), pintail (A. acuta), and gadwall (A. strepera) breeding in south-central North Dakota and lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) breeding in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, are com- pared by the aggregate volume and aggregate percent methods. Advantages of the aggregate percent method are discussed in relation to the information presented

Upper body movement during walking in children with lumbo-sacral myelomeningocele

Eight children with lumbo-sacral myelomeningocele (MMC) underwent three-dimensional movement analysis to determine whether or not differing levels of lower extremity strength affected the extent of shoulder. trunk and pelvis movement during independent walking when wearing orthoses. Fourteen control children were also investigated. The patterns of upper body movements in all MMC children were well defined and consistent, showing small standard deviations from the mean. In the frontal and transverse planes, segment displacements of the MMC children assigned into Group II (hip extensor and abductor Muscle strength grade 0-2) were almost twice that of the MMC children in Group I (hip extensor and abductor muscle strength grade 3-4). All segment displacements in the frontal, transverse and sagittal planes for Group I and Group II children were significantly greater than those for the controls. In the frontal plane these differences were approximately 4-10 times greater. with the Group II children having the largest peak-to-peak displacements. These results indicate that the motion amplitudes of the upper body segments are related to the degree of muscle weakness of the lower limbs. No significant differences were found when comparing segment motions during walking with either the Ferrari type knee-ankle-foot or ankle-foot orthoses. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved