Development and Control of Repetitive Leg Movements During
Embryonic Development Professor Nina Bradley is Principal
Investigator of this NICHD funded research project, which seeks
to determine whether fetal movements and the environment in
which they are generated contribute to adaptive postnatal motor
behavior. New imaging technologies are revealing ever-greater
details of motor behavior in the fetus for clinical diagnosis
and treatment, and understanding the form, mechanisms, and
significance of fetal behavior will be important for maximizing
clinical application of imaging tools. This project investigates
an array of repetitive leg movements, such as kicking and
stepping, that emerge in the final days of development in the
chick embryo, previous to hatching and bipedal locomotion. Chick
embryos are ideal for this research because chick embryos, like
human fetuses, begin generating complex movements such as
kicking and stepping early in development, and are amenable to
experimental manipulation throughout