Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Kinesiology and Sport Studies
Major Professor
Songning Zhang
Committee Members
Songning Zhang, Joshua T. Weinhandl, Jon R. Davids, Hamparsum Bozdogan
Abstract
Cerebral palsy (CP) describes a group of persistent disorders affecting movement and posture due to brain injury occurring in the developing fetal or infant brain. It is the most common physical disability in childhood. Children with CP face various biomechanical challenges that significantly impact their movement. The integration of quantitative biomechanical analysis in the study of individuals with CP, with the use of sophisticated data analysis tools like the gait profile score (GPS) and the gait variable score (GVS) for the analysis of evaluation of gait kinematic abnormalities and the walk dynamic motor control index (Walk-DMC) to analyze patterns of coordinated muscle activations, is fundamental for a thorough understanding and effective management of this highly individualized condition.
This series of interconnected studies analyzed biomechanical data to investigate the relationship between walking and cycling kinematics and neuromuscular control in typically developing (TD) individuals and individuals with CP. The first study adapted clinical gait analysis tools, GPS, GVS, and Walk-DMC, for a comparative analysis of walking and cycling at two different speeds in TD individuals. The second study used the adapted tools to examine the effects of asymmetric cycling at two different speeds in TD individuals. The third study applied the concepts from the first two studies to two individuals with CP.
Chapter 4 showed that walking and cycling have distinct movement profiles and there was no strong correlation between any of the kinematic variables between walking and cycling. Additionally, complexity of neuromuscular control decreased in walking compared to cycling. Chapter 5 found no significant changes in kinematic deviations between different lengths of asymmetric crank. However, complexity of neuromuscular control increased with speed and decreased with shorter crank arm lengths. Chapter 6 showed two individuals with CP have varying changes in cycling deviations, from TD individuals, across different asymmetric crank arm lengths. The complexity of neuromuscular control decreased with speed and increased with shorter crank arms for the two individuals analyzed. Future research should expand on these analyses with a larger and more diverse CP population to validate and expand upon these findings.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Sean Alexander, "Cycling and Walking Biomechanics in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Novel Approach Using Asymmetric Crank Arms. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2024.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/11311
