Corneal Reflexes

Abstract

Introduction Reflex motor responses of skeletal muscle to a variety of peripheral stimuli have long been recognized to fall into many distinctive and predictable patterns.¹ In some instances, physiological features and integrative arrangements have now been clarified to a sufficient degree that these in themselves indicate a biological meaning of the reflex responses. For example, myotatic reflexes, controlled by the gamma efferent system, clearly play an important part in postural adjustment and movement.² Even these, however, constitute merely a portion of the excitatory events which lead to the coordinated discharge of motoneurons in effective motor activity.³ Other reflex responses, including some in clinical use, have been less clearly defined and, for the most part, their basic functional roles have escaped detection. Among these are superficial abdominal and plantar responses. Both are basically spinal reflexes.^4-10 The fiber spectrum of their efferent pathways is broad.^4,11 Some fibers