Localized movements

Abstract

Localized movements, also called isolated, partial or ideokinetic movements, involve only segments of the fetal body. This definition is somewhat arbitrary as bodily movements are hardly ever isolated phenomena, but emerge from the confluence of multiple subsystems. The amplitude of isolated finger movements is relatively minute, and yet they set in motion minor adjustments spreading to other fingers, the wrist and the arm. Facial expressions may seem limited to a small area of the face, yet even an apparently simple frown or a smile involves the activation of a group of facial muscles and brings about slight positional changes of the head, the neck or the shoulders. Movements of the legs, trunk and spine or ample sways of the arms cause major changes in the balance of the body, which produce passive displacement of other parts of the fetal body and activate a re-balancing of the same and of other body parts. In the end almost the entire body is drawn in. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Milan.