SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL FUNCTIONS IN THE CEREBRAL PALSIED

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Abstract
Sixty spastic, 60 athetoid and 60 non-neurologically impaired subjects, ranging in age from 7 to 21, were tested for stereog-nostic ability. Results were related to pressure and 2-point threshold data obtained from the same subjects. Group means demonstrated the controls'' superior performance on both the size and form aspects of the haptic object discrimination task, and no demonstrable differences between the spastic and athetoid subjects. An age effect was noted in size discrimination among controls. An MA [mental age] analysis indicated a decrease in both form and size errors as a function of in creasing MA among spastics. An evaluation of the relationships among quantitatively defined defects indicated significant occurrence of pairs of defects, the patterns of concomitance varying with the diagnostic group. In general, the presence of one defect increased the likelihood of a 2nd. However, the notion of an obligatory association between astereognosis and somesthetic defect is questioned in view of the number of subjects who showed an object discrimination defect in the absence of a somatosensory loss.