Abstract / Summary
Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the leading cause of motor disability in children and is frequently accompanied by cognitive impairments, including deficits in executive and attentional functions. Despite growing research on motor-cognitive interactions in other populations, evidence in CP remains limited. Objective: To identify gaps in the current literature, this review synthesised evidence on the relationships between specific motor and executive/attentional functions in CP. Method: A systematic search of three databases was conducted. Articles were screened using predefined eligibility criteria by two independent assessors. The results were summarised in tables and narrative form. The review was written in accordance with the JBI Guidelines. Results: Thirteen articles were included in the review, spanning 652 participants aged between 22 months and 62 years. Five studies reported significant links of motor functions with executive functions, and five with attentional functions. Gross and fine motor skills were most reliably linked to working memory, fine motor skills to overall executive functioning, and gross motor skills to focused attention. Three studies found no evidence of links between motor and cognitive control domains. We include an overview of tools used for measuring motor and attention/executive functions in the reviewed studies. Conclusions: Our review suggests positive associations between motor and executive/attentional functions in individuals with CP, highlighting their interdependence. More longitudinal empirical studies are needed, to confirm these links, which will help design better interventions. Despite the still limited evidence, our findings and anecdotal clinical reports call for intervention studies evaluating the multidimensional, cross-domain functional improvements.