EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Abstract

Introducion. Children with cerebral palsy demonstrate high prevalence of the cognitive impairment (CI). One of the key components of CI pathogenesis is sensory disafferentation. Aim. The goal of this investigation is to perform comparative analysis of event-related potentials (ERP) in children with CP and in healthy children. Materials and methods. A total of 30 children with CP (mean age 8.9 ± 0.84 year) and 44 healthy subjects (mean age 9.5 ± 0.60 years) were observed. Registration and comparative analysis of the acoustic ERP were performed with the use of non-parametric tests. Results. The decrease in age-related ERP latencies was slower in the main group. Significant elongation of ERP latencies was also observed in the main group, despite the clinical absence of cognitive decline. Conclusions. Our findings confirm the theory of sensory information cortical processing delay in children with CP. More investigations should be performed for the assessment of reliability of the ERP in the objective evaluation of CI level.