Deficits in two versions of a sustained attention test in adolescents with cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate sustained attention in adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP). CP affects motor control as well as certain cognitive processes such as attention, but its influence on the latter remains largely unexplored.

METHODS: Manual (Experiment 1) and oculomotor (Experiment 2) versions of the Continuous Performance Test were performed by adolescents with spastic CP and healthy age-matched controls (n = 10 per group in each experiment).

RESULTS: In both experiments, patients with CP showed more omissions and their reaction time was more variable than controls. In Experiment 2, patients also showed more commissions. This problem was not observed in Experiment 1, possibly because of the presence of a hand movement deficit in CP.

CONCLUSION: Taken together, the results show that sustained attention and inhibition capabilities are affected in CP. The present study also proposes that eye movements could constitute an interesting alternative for measuring sustained attention when hand movement is affected.