neonatal oral imitation in patients with severe brain damage新生儿口腔模仿严重脑损伤患者.pdfVIP

Neonatal Oral Imitation in Patients with Severe Brain Damage Tohshin Go1,2*, Yukuo Konishi1,2 1 Department of Infants’ Brain Cognitive Development, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 2 Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi-shi, Saitama, Japan Abstract Background: Neonates reproduce facial movements in response to an adult model just after birth. This neonatal oral imitation usually disappears at about 2- to 3-months of age following the development of cortical control. There is controversy relating to the nature and neural basis of such neonatal imitation. To address this issue, we studied the relationship between oral imitation, primitive reflexes, and residual voluntary movement in patients with severe brain damage. Methods: Six male and six female patients with cerebral palsy, from 4 to 39 years, were included in this study. Oral imitation was examined when they were awake and looked at the experimenter. Patients were evaluated as performing oral imitation when they opened their mouth repeatedly without visual feedback regarding their own behavior in response to the experimenter’s oral movement. Tongue or lip protrusion was not examined because none of patients were able to do those behaviors due to their physical disability. Rooting and sucking reflexes were also investigated as representatives of primitive reflexes. Results: Six patients (50%) performed oral imitation. Mouth opening was not observed repeatedly in response to other facial expression without opening the mouth such as surprise or smile, excluding the possibility of nonspecific oral reaction. They exhibited little voluntary movement of their extremities. Half of them also manifested at least one primitive refl