Brain and Behavioural Maturation in Newborn Infants of Diabetic Mothers1– Part III: Motor behaviour2

Abstract

Infants of diabetic mothers showed an increased tendency of burstlike or clonic spinal motoneurone activity. Since these rhythmic motor phenomena were easily elicited by stretch and since they were not found to be accompanied by a visible change in the EEG activity, they were supposed to be due to oscillations in the proprioceptive gamma-motoneurone muscle spindle feedback circuit rather than due to convulsive cerebral activity. Abnormal EEG patterns, characteristic for infants of diabetic mothers, were not accompanied by any change in behaviour or appearance. So far, neither these abnormal EEG phenomena nor the amount of rhythmic motor activity have been found to be significantly correlated to postnatal levels of blood glucose. Neurologische und neurophysiologische Analysen des motorischen Verhaltens von Neugeborenen diabetischer Mütter brachte folgende Ergebnisse: