Whoop !

We start Susan's snippets today with a ZINGER of a topic you are going to LOVE thinking about.

In the first 15 minutes we bounced around topics like

• movement strategies and selective motor control,
• neuroplasticity and motor learning.
• alignment, parents as partners, developmental orthopaedics

It's wild!

Click Here!

https://twc.wiredon.ltd/

But before I give you the run down - something very cool happened over the weekend that I wanted to share...

The tech team has been working hard in the background and The Wired Collective Hub now has Direct Messaging functionality.

Whoop 🙌

See if you can figure it out and send someone a message to say Hi 👋🤪

The hub is constantly improving which is amazing, but one thing that still doesn't work exactly perfectly is the updates. If your Hub has been open when the update goes live, you won't automatically see it.

‼️ You do need to hit the REFRESH button to see Spotlight Snippet one on the activities page.

__________________________

Okay - logistics out the way,

Let's talk Movement Synergies.

A key point of interest in this conversation with Susan was movement strategies. In all honesty, I struggled to conceptualize what Susan was explaining and kept thinking of muscle synergies as selective movement control or CPGs. So I did a little bit of exploring to make it make sense. Here's the Mindy breakdown (with a little help from AI):

Muscle synergies and selective motor control (SMC) are distinct but interrelated concepts in motor control, particularly relevant to cerebral palsy (CP). Here’s how they differ and interact:

Muscle Synergies

Definition: Coordinated activation patterns of muscle groups that simplify movement control. These are "neuromuscular teams" the brain uses to execute tasks efficiently.

• Role: Reduce complexity by grouping muscles into functional units (e.g., one synergy for leg swing, another for push-off during walking).
• In CP: Children often use fewer synergies (2–3 vs. 4–5 in typical development), leading to stiff, stereotyped movements like whole-limb flexion/extension patterns.

Selective Motor Control (SMC)

Definition: The ability to isolate and activate specific muscles independently for precise movements.

• Role: Enables adaptability (e.g., adjusting gait on uneven terrain) and refined skill execution.
• In CP: Impaired SMC manifests as involuntary co-activation (e.g., hip flexors firing when trying to isolate ankle dorsiflexion).

Takeaway: Muscle synergies represent how the nervous system organizes movement, while SMC reflects its capacity to refine that organization. In other words, you can have good selective movement control in supported positions, but lack movement synergies to realize these in gait BUT you can't have poor selective movement control and complex movement synergies.

Assessment: Clinical tools like SCALE/SCUES grade SMC by observing isolated joint movements (e.g., "Can you wiggle just your toes?")

• SMC deficits reinforce synergy rigidity: Poor corticospinal tract function (common in CP) restricts the brain’s ability to "edit" synergies, perpetuating compensatory patterns

Central Pattern Generators

1 - CPGs Provide Rhythmic Scaffolding

• CPGs generate the basic locomotor rhythm (e.g., alternation of flexor/extensor phases).
• Synergies organize how muscles are activated within this rhythm (e.g., adjusting force for uphill vs. downhill walking).

2 - Synergies Refine CPG Output

• CPGs alone produce crude rhythms (e.g., fictive locomotion in spinalized animals).
• Synergies add task-specific muscle coordination (e.g., modulating ankle stiffness during running).

3 - Hierarchical Control

• CPGs: Lower-level, spinal networks for rhythm generation.
• Synergies: Higher-level, supraspinal/cortical inputs that adapt CPG output to environmental demands.

And just to add an extra piece - mass patterns of flexion and extension are a way of describing a lack of selective movement control.

Clinical Implication

Therapeutic Goal: Move from mass patterns → selective control → expanded movement strategies

The presence of mass patterns signals that therapy should focus on:

1. Developing selective motor control first
2. Gradually introducing more complex movement combinations
3. Building a repertoire of functional movement strategies as control improves

Now you've got that under your belt - jump into the Hub and listen to what Susan has to say. Read the high level summary of related research that was brought up in the conversation - and if you're loving this topic and want to go deep, click on any of the images to jump to the full article.

Click Here to Access The Hub!

https://twc.wiredon.ltd/

Are we having fun yet!!

Mindy

PS. Don't skip over the fascinating research on the time it takes for neuroplasitc changes to be represented in the brain for more permanent skill acquisition.