Inhibitory control following perinatal brain injury

Abrams, R.A., Brunstrom, J.E., Christ, S.E., & White, D.A., (2003).  Inhibitory control following

            Perinatal brain injury.  Neuropsychology, 17(1), 171-178.  doi: 10.1037/0894-4105.17.1.

            171

            The article I chose is about Cerebral Palsy, specifically Bilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy (SCP).  In terms of maturity the prefrontal cortex is the last brain region to get there and continues to develop into adulthood.  The ability to perform executive abilities is housed in the PFC.  This study looks at early damage to the white matter tracts in the PFC and other brain areas.  Bilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy is traditionally caused by perinatal ischemia.  This is caused by periventricular leukomalacia which is damage to the white matter in zones around the lateral ventricles.  This causes blood supply to be limited and injury to this area is more likely during and ischemic episode.  This also affects the cortiospinal tracts, which may cause movement deficiencies, as well as the basal ganglia and the dopaminergic pathways. 

            Three tasks were used to evaluate the participants: Stroop, stimulus-response, and antisaccade.  13 children with SCP were used and all had complications like prematurity and received their diagnosis between 1 and 3 years of age.  These children did worse at the above three tasks than the control group.  They respond and perform slower because their inhibitory control is affected by the brain injury.  SCP causes a disruption in the frontostriatal networks and the pathways of inhibitory control are affected as well.