Modelling Personalised Musculoskeletal and Motor Control Deficits in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Series of Case Studies

Physics-based simulations that can predict the effect of treatments on gait in children with cerebral palsy (CP) can enhance clinical decision-making. To this end, accurately modelling patient-specific musculoskeletal and motor control deficits is crucial. In this work, we predicted the gait pattern of three children with CP using models with increasing levels of personalisation. Results showed that models including personalised muscle weakness, contractures, and motor control better predicted lower limb kinematics but failed to accurately predict muscle activity. This suggests that including musculoskeletal and motor control impairments can capture gait deviations in CP, but we are not imposing muscle co-activation patterns correctly. In future work, we will investigate how to distinguish real neural impairment from task specific coordination.