The Palmomental Reflex

Abstract

Introduction The organization of the cutaneous reflexes in man has been the object of several recent physiological studies. Kugelberg and his associates have demonstrated in their analyses of the cutaneous abdominal and erector spinae,^1,2 plantar and other nociceptive reflexes of the leg^3,4 that the reflex movements which result from the stimulation of a cutaneous point are integrated so as to remove the point stimulated from the offending stimulus in a most efficient and appropriate manner. It has been proposed³ that that is a general principle of the functional organization of the nociceptive reflexes in man. One relatively obscure cutaneous reflex seems to be an exception to this rule. This is the so-called palmomental reflex, first described by Marinesco and Radovici⁵ in 1920, in which a stimulus to the thenar eminence of the hand, usually the dragging of a sharp object, results in a seemingly inappropriate contraction