They are essentially phenomena of decerebrate rigidity. The lower extremities are extended and adducted, the forearm pronated the wrist and hand often flexed and generally everted or supinated.
Under reflexes are generally included deep (or tendon and periosteal) and superficial or cutaneous reflexes. To these may be added pathologic reflexes of spinal automatism and other organic reflexes. The value of
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Tremor is the most common of all abnormal movements. When it present one notes in location (the head, eyelids, lips, the jaw, tongue, arms or legs), rate, amplitude, and rhythm. The tremor may be designated as slow, moderate or rapid (4, 5, 6, 8, or 10 oscillations per second), coarse, medium or the fine, and regular or irregular.
The tremor may occur while
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Although one generally finds it easy to elicit the reflexes after one has acquired some experiences it is necessary to make sure that the patient relaxes his limbs and that his attention is distracted from the tests. One should strike the tendon and not the muscle, because in the latter case one tests myotatic irritability and not the tendon reflex. For the deep reflexes it is well to place the limb or muscle in the half way position between contraction and relaxation.
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The grasp reflex is significant of frontal lobe lesions. It is regarded as a release phenomenon and occurs normally in infants below one year of age. The grasp reflex probably is the result of tonic innervation’s, due to stretch, hence is proprioceptive in nature. Fulton has shown that the grasp reflex is an integral part of the body righting reflex mechanism and varies with the position of the body in space parallel with the righting reflexes.
