THE INFLUENCE OF HEAD POSITION AND HEAD POSITION CHANGE ON SPONTANEOUS BODY POSTURE AND MOTILITY IN FULL-TERM AGA AND SGA NEWBORN-INFANTS

No consensus exists concerning the influence of head position and head position change on body posture and motility. Especially the existenc e of an asymmetric tonic neck reflex (ATNR) in full-term newborns is a n issue of discussion. Three-hour video recordings were made of 15 ful l-term appropriate for gestational age (AGA) and 15 full-term small fo r gestational age (SGA) infants between the third and eight postnatal day. During a playback of the video recording head position, head posi tion change and several movement patterns of the four limbs were fed i nto a computer using an event-detecting program. Furthermore, spontane ous head turnings were selected and body posture just before, immediat ely at and 1 min after the head turning were sketched. The data were a nalyzed concerning: (1) influence of head position on symmetry of move ment of the four limbs; (2) the existence of an ATNR and ATNR-related patterns. In both AGA and SGA infants all movement patterns except han d-face and hand-mouth contact showed a symmetrical distribution indepe ndent of head position. Furthermore, the occurrence of an ATNR followi ng a spontaneous head turning in both AGA and SGA infants was rare. Fr om our results it may be concluded that the ATNR is rare in full-term AGA and SGA newborns. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that head p osition is not a major factor influencing quantitative aspects of spon taneous motor behaviour. The results are of clinical importance as the y imply that in the examination of the neurological condition of the f ull-term newborn infant by means of observation of spontaneous posture and motility, head position is not of major importance. (C) 1997 Else vier Science B.V.