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June 1943

STUDIES ON THE CORPUS CALLOSUM: IX. RELATIONSHIP OF THE GRASP REFLEX TO SECTION OF THE CORPUS CALLOSUM

Author Affiliations

ROCHESTER, N. Y.

From the Department of Medicine, Division of Psychiatry (Dr. Akelaitis), and the Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery (Drs. Risteen and Van Wagenen), University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the Clinics of the Strong Memorial and Rochester Municipal Hospitals.

Arch NeurPsych. 1943;49(6):820-825. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1943.02290180044004
Abstract

The grasp reflex is a flexor response of the digits to stimulation of the palm or to stretching of the flexor tendons of the hand. It occurs normally in infants and pathologically in adults with lesions of the frontal lobe predominantly. Schuster and Casper1 attempted to explain this phenomenon as an absence or interruption of the inhibitory pathway which normally suppresses reflex grasping. This hypothetic pathway is bilateral in its origin and arises from the medial surface of the superior frontal convolution and the gyrus cinguli. The fibers pass backward to the level of the central area, some passing directly to the prerolandic area of the homolateral hemisphere and others crossing in the corpus callosum to terminate in the central area of the opposite side. Schuster and Casper1 and Schuster and Pinéas2 reported the occurrence of forced grasping in patients with large tumors of the corpus callosum.

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