Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, [1][2] non-contagious motor conditions that causephysical disability

in human de velopment, chiefly in the various areas of body movement.[3] Cerebral refers to the cerebrum, which is the affected area of the brain (althou gh the disorder most likely involves connections between the cortex and other pa rts of the brain such as the cerebellum), and palsy refers to disorder of moveme nt. Furthermore, "paralytic disorders" are not cerebral palsy the condition of qua driplegia, therefore, should not be confused with spastic quadriplegia, nortardi ve dyskinesia with dyskinetic cerebral palsy, nor diplegia with spastic diplegia , and so on. Cerebral palsy's nature as an umbrella term means it is defined mostly via sever al different subtypes, especially the type featuring spasticity, and also mixtur es of those subtypes. Cerebral palsy is caused by damage to the motor control centers of the developin g brain and can occur during pregnancy, duringchildbirth or after birth up to ab out age three.[4][5] Resulting limits in movement and posture cause activity lim itation and are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, depth perception and other sight-based perceptual problems, communication ability; impairments c an also be found in cognition, and epilepsy is found in about one-third of cases . CP, no matter what the type, is often accompanied by secondary musculoskeletal problems that arise as a result of the underlying etiology.[6] Improvements in neonatology, (specialized medical treatment of newborn babies), have helped reduce the number of babies who develop cerebral palsy, and increase d the survival of babies with very low birth weights (babies which are more like ly to have cerebral palsy).[7][8] A 2007 six-country survey found an incidence o f CP of 2.12 2.45 per 1,000 live births,[9] indicating a slight rise in recent years . A 2003 study put the average lifetime cost for people with CP in the US at $92 1,000 per individual, including lost income.[10] Of the many types and subtypes of CP, none has a known cure. Usually, medical in tervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications arising f rom CP's effects. Classification Cerebral palsy (CP) is divided into four major classifications to describe diffe rent movement impairments. These classifications also reflect the areas of the b rain that are damaged. The four major classifications are: spastic, ataxic, athe toid/dyskinetic and mixed. [edit]Spastic Main article: Spastic cerebral palsy Spastic cerebral palsy is by far the most common type of overall cerebral palsy, occurring in 80% of all cases.[11] People with this type of CP are hypertonic a nd have what is essentially a neuromuscular mobility impairment (rather than hyp otonia or paralysis) stemming from an upper motor neuron lesion in the brain as well as the corticospinal tract or themotor cortex. This damage impairs the abil ity of some nerve receptors in the spine to properly receive gamma amino butyric acid, leading to hypertonia in the muscles signaled by those damaged nerves.