various kinds of involuntary additional and friendly movements in paralyzed (or paretic) limbs that occur during active movements of healthy limbs; One of the signs of central paralysis. Pathological synkinesis is divided into global, coordination and imitation.
1) Global synkinesis – contraction of the muscles of paralyzed limbs, manifested in the usual movement for their function, arising from the tension of muscle groups on the healthy side, for example, when trying to rise from a lying position on the paretic side, the arm is bent at the elbow and brought to the body, while the leg is extended.
2) Coordination synkinesis – when you try to make a movement with a paretic limb, another movement involuntarily appears in it. For example, in tibial synkinesis, when trying to flex the lower leg, dorsiflexion of the foot and big toe occurs.
3) Imitative synkinesis is an involuntary repetition in the paretic limb of those movements that are performed in a healthy limb. For example, if the examiner resists the adductor and abduction movements of the healthy leg, then similar movements appear in the paretic leg. Physiological synkinesis is especially pronounced in children of the 1st year of life; These include many basic reflexes of an infant as manifestations of primitive motor skills. In the process of forming the child’s motor activity, the nature of synkinesis changes, which makes it possible to distinguish normal motor development from pathological development. Teaching children new motor skills and actions is first accompanied by an abundance of various synkinesis (for example, twitching of the lips, sticking out the tongue when writing the first letters). The development of the child’s work skills and the performance of complex manipulations of the hands leads to a decrease in unnecessary accompanying movements.