title: Locomotor primitives in newborn babies and their development.
abstract: How rudimentary movements evolve into sophisticated ones during development remains unclear. It is often assumed that the primitive patterns of neural control are suppressed during development, replaced by entirely new patterns. Here we identified the basic patterns of lumbosacral motoneuron activity from multimuscle recordings in stepping neonates, toddlers, preschoolers, and adults. Surprisingly, we found that the two basic patterns of stepping neonates are retained through development, augmented by two new patterns first revealed in toddlers. Markedly similar patterns were observed also in the rat, cat, macaque, and guineafowl, consistent with the hypothesis that, despite substantial phylogenetic distances and morphological differences, locomotion in several animal species is built starting from common primitives, perhaps related to a common ancestral neural network.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dominici
authors.forename: Yuri P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Ivanenko
authors.forename: Germana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cappellini
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: d'Avella
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mondì
authors.forename: Marika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cicchese
authors.forename: Adele
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fabiano
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Silei
authors.forename: Ambrogio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Paolo
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giannini
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Poppele
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lacquaniti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002415:Cats; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007866:Leg / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009043:Motor Activity; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology; D016138:Walking