GriFT: A Device for Quantifying Physiological and Pathological Mirror Movements in Children

Goal: Mirror movements (MM) occur during unilateral actions and manifest as involuntary muscle activity of the passive limb, "mirroring" voluntary actions executed by the contralateral homologous body part. They are a normal motor feature in young children that gradually disappears. In children suffering from neurological disorders, e.g., unilateral cerebral palsy, MMs have been proposed to yield relevant information for diagnosis and therapy. However, in clinical practice, MM are typically assessed using an ordinal rating scale. Here, we introduce the grip force tracking (GriFT) device, a portable system to quantitatively assess MM during repetitive unimanual squeezing while playing a computer game.

Methods: The GriFT device consists of two handles, each equipped with two compressive force sensors (range 0-23 kg, F 1000 Hz). Children complete three trials of unimanual squeezing, whereby the visual display on the screen determines the squeezing rhythm (0.67 Hz at 15% maximum voluntary contraction, force-level adjusted per hand). MMs are characterized based on frequency, amplitude, and temporal features (synchronization, timing).

Results: MM differed significantly between children with different clinical MM scores. MM frequency and amplitude were most discriminative. Categorization of physiological MM proved highly sensitive (89%-97%).

Conclusion: We demonstrated feasibility and validity of the GriFT device in a large cohort of typically developing children (N = 174, age 5-15 years), and its clinical applicability in children with unilateral cerebral palsy with various levels of hand function.

Significance: The quantification of MM is a promising tool to further investigate and categorize MM in children with unilateral cerebral palsy.