ArticleDevelopmental psychobiology2020
Spatiotemporal organization of myoclonic twitching in sleeping human infants.
Article in Developmental psychobiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Skin-to-skin contact improves sleep stability in preterm infants.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Assessing infants' sleep in the home setting: designing rational study approaches.Pediatric research · 2026Review
- Twitching in sleeping premature infants provides a sensitive behavioral assay of early motor control.iScience · 2026Article
- Article
- REM-sleep twitching in adults and the maintenance of specialized sensorimotor systems.Current biology : CB · 2026Review
- Sleep and infant development in the first year.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Twitching in sleeping premature infants provides a sensitive behavioral assay of early motor control.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Do twitching and twitch-spindle coupling differ between N2 and N3 sleep in 6-month-olds?bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Embodied sensorimotor control: computational modeling of the neural control of movement.ArXiv · 2025Article
- Co-developing sleep-wake and sensory foundations for cognition in the human fetus and newborn.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
- NAPping PAnts (NAPPA): An open wearable solution for monitoring Infant's sleeping rhythms, respiration and posture.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Spatiotemporal patterns of spontaneous movement in neonates are significantly linked to risk of autism spectrum disorders at 18 months old.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- The temporal structure of REM sleep shows minute-scale fluctuations across brain and body in mice and humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Open-ended movements structure sensorimotor information in early human development.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Relations between sleep patterns early in life and brain development: A review.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2022Review
- Early brain activity: Translations between bedside and laboratory.Progress in neurobiology · 2022Review
- Review
- Twitches emerge postnatally during quiet sleep in human infants and are synchronized with sleep spindles.Current biology : CB · 2021Article
- Roles for Sleep in Neural and Behavioral Plasticity: Reviewing Variation in the Consequences of Sleep Loss.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
During the perinatal period in mammals when active sleep predominates, skeletal muscles twitch throughout the body. We have hypothesized that myoclonic twitches provide unique insight into the functional status of the human infant's nervous system. However, assessments of the rate and patterning of twitching have largely been restricted to infant rodents. Thus, here we analyze twitching in human infants over the first seven postnatal months. Using videography and behavioral measures of twitching during bouts of daytime sleep, we find at all ages that twitching across the body occurs predominantly in bursts at intervals of 10 s or less. We also find that twitching is expressed differentially across the body and with age. For example, twitching of the face and head is most prevalent shortly after birth and decreases over the first several months. In addition, twitching of the hands and feet occurs at a consistently higher rate than does twitching elsewhere in the body. Finally, the patterning of twitching becomes more structured with age, with twitches of the left and right hands and feet exhibiting the strongest coupling. Altogether, these findings support the notion that twitches can provide a unique source of information about typical and atypical sensorimotor development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.