PRECHTL'S QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF GENERAL MOVEMENTS - A WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN

CHRISTA EINSPIELER, HEINZ F. R. PRECHTL

Reflexes and responses can be studied if the nervous system is grossly impaired by experimental lesion. However, the spontaneous movements are a much more sensitive indicator of brain damage than reflexes. General movements (GMs) are the part of the spontaneous movement repertoaire and are present from early foetal life onwards until the end of the first half a year of life. GMs loose their complex and variable character and become monotonous and poor if the nervous system is impaired. During the last 10 years several studies of abnormal GMs have been carried out. It has been observed that the qualitative assesment of GMs has the high predicitive value for later developmet of cerebral palsy and later neurological outcome. The General Movement Trust was founded to ensure the high quality of training for the application of this assessment method.