Stereotyped movement disorder in an adult following acquired brain injury: Effect of environmental stimulation

Abstract

In the present study, a naturalistic functional analysis procedure was used to assess the effect of environmental stimulation on the stereotypic behavior (body rocking) of an adult whose stereotypy appeared to be induced by an acquired brain injury. Environmental stimulation, operationalized in terms of both physical and social characteristics, resulted in only minimal changes in the occurrence of body rocking. Body rocking occurred in excess of 50% of the observations in all environmental stimulation conditions and in a naturally occurring baseline condition. To our knowledge, this is the first published report of a functional analysis of stereotypy associated with acquired brain injury.

The Development of Rocking among Children who are Blind

“…Researchers have proposed three kinds of physiological explanations for rocking: abnormalities in neurological structures or chemistry (Lewis, Baumeister, & Mailman, 1987;Shulman, Sanchez-Ramos, & Weiner, 1996;Thompson, Pearcey, Bodfish, Crawford, & Lewis, 1995); activation of a central nervous system oscillator mechanism that is linked with other biological rhythms (Jammes & Rosenberger, 1971;Kropla, Yu, Ross, & Ward, 1994;Lewis et al, 1984); and the body's impetus to maintain homeostasis (Kropla et aI., 1994), in response to either overarousal (Berkson & Mason, 1964;Frankel, Freeman, Ritvo, & Pardo, 1978) or understimulation (Forehand & Baumeister, 1971;Thurrell & Rice, 1970). In contrast, behaviorists view rocking as a learned behavior that is shaped and maintained by social and environmental consequences (Durand & Carr, 1987;Spradlin & Girardeau, 1966).…”