What do reflexes tell you?

If you think you have brisk reflexes you can ask your doctor for a reflex test. This test helps determine how effective your nervous system is by assessing the reaction between your motor pathways and sensory responses. During the test, your doctor may tap your knees, biceps, fingers, and ankles.

What does it mean when you have no reflexes?

Usually, absent reflexes are caused by an issue with the nerves in the tendon and muscle. You may have other muscle symptoms along with areflexia, like weakness, twitching, or atrophy.

What does it mean to have high reflexes?

Hyperreflexia is defined as overactive or overresponsive reflexes. Examples of this can include twitching or spastic tendencies, which are indicative of upper motor neuron disease as well as the lessening or loss of control ordinarily exerted by higher brain centers of lower neural pathways (disinhibition).

Why is reflex testing important?

Reflex testing contributes to accurate bedside diagnosis in many cases of neuromuscular disease, providing localising diagnostic information that cannot be obtained by any other method (including clinical neurophysiological and neuroradiological investigations).

What can affect reflexes?

Many factors have been shown to affect reaction times, including age, gender, physical fitness, fatigue, distraction, alcohol, personality type, and whether the stimulus is auditory or visual.

What happens when you don’t have reflex actions?

If the reaction is exaggerated or absent, it may indicate a damage to the central nervous system. Most reflexes go completely unnoticed because they don’t involve a visible and sudden movement. Body functions such as digestion or blood pressure, for example, are all regulated by reflexes.

At what age do reflexes decline?

After studying 3,305 people ages 16 to 44, researchers found that the brain’s response time begins to decline at age 24. The descent is a slow, but nonetheless, steady one.

What should I look for when testing reflexes?

Reflexes tested include the following:

• Biceps (innervated by C5 and C6)
• Radial brachialis (by C6)
• Triceps (by C7)
• Distal finger flexors (by C8)
• Quadriceps knee jerk (by L4)
• Ankle jerk (by S1)
• Jaw jerk (by the 5th cranial nerve)

What can cause abnormal reflexes?

Different types of reflexes can be signs of serious disorders related to the nervous system. Spinal cord injuries are most likely to cause these unusual reflexes, but other disorders that can result in abnormal reflexes include brain tumors, brain trauma, stroke, meningitis, or spinal cord injuries.

What conditions affect reflexes?

Spinal cord injuries are most likely to cause these unusual reflexes, but other disorders that can result in abnormal reflexes include brain tumors, brain trauma, stroke, meningitis, or spinal cord injuries. Reflexes may also be affected by serious conditions including: Parkinson’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease.

What is a normal reflex grade?

Reflexes are graded on a scale of 0 to 4. A grade of 2 indicates normal reflexes. A grade of 3 indicates hyperreflexia; 4 indicates hyperreflexia with clonus. Decreased relexes are indicated by 1 (hyporeflexia) or 0 (no reflex elicited, even using the Jurassic maneuver.