Researchers for the Human Sensorimotor Control Lab (HSCL), led by director Jürgen Konczak, PhD, professor in the School of Kinesiology, recently published an article titled, “Ankle proprioception in children with cerebral palsy,” to the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often have gait abnormalities that are associated with impaired body awareness, specifically reduced proprioception at the ankle joint. However, there is no established clinical standard to evaluate ankle proprioception. To address this shortcoming, researchers from the HSCL and Gillette Children’s hospital in St. Paul investigated ankle position sense in children with CP. The results provide first knowledge to understand the degree of ankle proprioceptive dysfunction in cerebral palsy. Liz Boyer, PhD from Gillette Children’s is the lead author. Former doctoral students Qiyin Huang, PhD and Jinseok Oh, PhD from HSCL were instrumental in conducting the study.
