Abstract
IntroductionDuring early childhood, typical human motor behavior reveals a gradual transition from automatic motor patterns to acquired motor skills, by the continuous interplay between nature and nurture. During the wiring and shaping of the underlying motor networks, insight into the neurological phenotype of developmental motor patterns is incomplete. In healthy, typically developing children (0–3 years of age), we therefore aimed to investigate the neurological phenotype of developmental motor patterns.MethodsIn 32 healthy, typically developing children (0–3 years), we video‐recorded spontaneous motor behavior, general movements (GMs), and standardized motor tasks. We classified the motor patterns by: (a) the traditional neurodevelopmental approach, by Gestalt perception and (b) the classical neurological approach, by the clinical phenotypic determination of movement disorder features. We associated outcomes by Cramer's V.ResultsDevelopmental motor patterns revealed (a) choreatic‐like features (≤3 months; associated with fidgety GMs (r = 0.732) and startles (r = 0.687)), (b) myoclonic‐like features (≤3 months; associated with fidgety GMs (r = 0.878) and startles (r = 0.808)), (c) dystonic‐like features (0–3 years; associated with asymmetrical tonic neck reflex (r = 0.641) and voluntary movements (r = 0.517)), and (d) ataxic‐like features (>3 months; associated with voluntary movements (r = 0.928)).ConclusionsIn healthy infants and toddlers (0–3 years), typical developmental motor patterns reveal choreatic‐, myoclonic‐, dystonic‐ and ataxic‐like features. The transient character of these neurological phenotypes is placed in perspective of the physiological shaping of the underlying motor centers. Neurological phenotypic insight into developmental motor patterns can contribute to adequate discrimination between ontogenetic and initiating pathological movement features and to adequate interpretation of therapeutic interactions.
Highlights
During early childhood, typical human motor behavior reveals a grad‐ ual transition from automatic motor patterns to acquired motor skills, by the continu‐ ous interplay between nature and nurture
We aimed to elucidate the neurological phenotype of developmental motor patterns by as‐ sociating two different approaches: (a) the traditional neurodevelop‐ mental approach, by the technique and theory of Gestalt Perception (Prechtl, 1990) and (b) the classical neurological approach, by the clinical phenotypic determination of movement disorder features
Typically developing children (0–3 years of age), we aimed to investigate the neurological phenotype of developmental motor patterns
Summary
Typical human motor behavior reveals a grad‐ ual transition from automatic motor patterns to acquired motor skills, by the continu‐ ous interplay between nature and nurture. The first traditional neurodevelopmental approach involves the assessment of the developmental motor patterns by Gestalt perception (Prechtl, 1990) This method describes the quality (i.e., variability in amplitude, speed, fluency, and symmetry) of sponta‐ neous motor behavior, including general movements (GMs; (Prechtl, 1990)). During the acquisition of new motor patterns, the healthy motor system explores different strategies, resulting in variable motor output of optimal complexity (Dusing, Thacker, Stergiou, & Galloway, 2013) In this period, the ner‐ vous system is being shaped and organized by innate activation of neural circuitry and environmental interaction. This organization concurs with a gradual change in the quality of motor behavior, changing from a clumsy pattern with co‐contractions, into fluent, precise, and well‐ coordinated motor performances (Hempel, 1993a, 1993b; Jovanovic & Schwarzer, 2017; Largo, Fischer, & Rousson, 2003; Lin & Nardocci, 2016; Nishiyori et al, 2016)
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