ON THE MOTOR DEFICIT IN CONGENITAL BILATERAL ATHETOSIS

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Abstract
The phenomenon of athetosis is an instability of posture resulting from conflict between antagonistic motor reactions that are essentially reflex in nature. Thus, the alternating, periodic flexion and extension of fingers and toes or pursing and parting of the lips result from an unstable equilibrium between the grasp reflex and avoiding response. The postures may occur spontaneously or in response to their natural physiologic stimuli. Purposive movement in patients with congenital bilateral athetosis is defective not only because there is an inability to suppress the antagonistic member of these two responses during a desired movement, but also because of concurrent interfering reactions, associated, and mass movements generally of neck and labyrinthine reflex origin. Motor function in patients with congenital bilateral athetosis is "immature" in form and identical in nature to that of the normal human infant. This suggests that the motor deficit in congenital bilateral athetosis is physiologically related to failure of normal sensory-motor integration with a corresponding exaggeration or hypertrophy of infantile motor reactions.