POSTURE, SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENTS, AND BEHAVIORAL STATE ORGANIZATION IN INFANTS AFFECTED BY BRAIN MALFORMATIONS

Posture, quantity of spontaneous movement patterns, quality of general movements (GMs), and behavioural state organisation were studied in n ine infants affected by documented brain malformations. A single 1 h v ideo recording of five infants and two or more serial video recordings of another four infants were performed after birth. The graphic repre sentation of single movement patterns (actogram) and of behavioural st ates of one video recording was performed in eight out of nine infants . The quality of GMs was assessed according to Prechtl's method in all video recordings. All nine infants showed a less variable posture tha n normal newborn infants and an unusual resting posture was detected i n seven infants. Poor behavioural state organisation without sleep cyc les was common to the nine infants and excessive wakefulness was obser ved in six infants. As for the quantity of single movement patterns, s ix infants lacked one or two movement patterns normally present in hea lthy newborn infants. An abnormal quality of GMs was noted in all nine infants and distinct motor abnormalities were observed in single infa nts. A monotonous and sometimes stereotyped sequence of different body parts involved in the movement (i.e. poor repertoire GMs) was common to all infants. In the four infants of whom two or more video recordin gs were available, initial poor repertoire GMs were followed by a furt her deterioration in movement quality. No relationship was found betwe en the quantity of defective brain tissue, lack of a specific part of the brain, type and severity of GM and posture abnormalities. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.