Immediately after born neonates can instinctively walk. When supported by a parent or a doctor for 70-80% of their weight and their feet touch the surface, they are able to perform stepping patterns that is a primitive reflex hardwired in our neural circuitry, that is known as ‘stepping reflex’. These early stepping movements can also be observed in anencephalic infants and even before born in in human foetuses that suggests a predominant role from the spinal cord and brainstem as the neocortex and the motor descending from the cortex to the spinal cord are still immature at the birth. Typically developing (TD) children start to walk independently at the age of around 12 months, and this moment triggers fundamental developmental changes. In fact, failing to reach independent walking by an age of 18-20 months may indicate developmental delay. Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most common developmental motor disorders, it describes a group of permanent disorders of the development of posture and movement that are caused by non-progressive lesions in an immature brain. Most children with CP received diagnosis during the first two years of life, but when the child’s symptoms are mild, it might be initially overlooked, making a reliable diagnosis before the age of 4 or 5 is challenge. Although about 2/3 of children with CP manage to walk before the age of 5, they often exhibit hardly functional and unstable locomotion. Our project aimed to characterize the emergence of independent walking in TD children and children with CP. It sought to understand the interplay between brain and muscular activity before – during - and after- this crucial developmental phase in healthy children and in children with a visible lesion precisely in the brain (children with high risk of developing CP); it aimed to identify differences in the biomechanical aspect, in the muscular and brain activation underlying the development of walking; it sought to understand the effect of the current rehabilitation techniques performed in children with cerebral palsy in their neuromotor abilities.
