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Reflex Development and the Prehensile Deficit in Cerebral Palsy
Author(s) -
Carter Mark
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1630.1983.tb01412.x
Subject(s) - prehensile tail , cerebral palsy , physical medicine and rehabilitation , reflex , spastic , psychology , spastic cerebral palsy , physical therapy , medicine , neuroscience , anatomy
Automatic prehensile responses are considered to form the reflex base for voluntary prehension. Aspects of upper limb dysfunction in cerebral palsy are identified as resulting from disorganization of this reflex base. Spastic forms often show exaggeration of traction and avoiding responses with a failure of higher level reactions. Athetoids exhibit a highly unstable equilibrium between the grasp reflex and avoiding response. Discussion in this article is based on a comprehensive literature review.