Reflexes in the spinal monkey

✍ Scribed by J. C. Hinsey; J. E. Markee

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1938
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 795 KB
• Volume: 69
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9967
• DOI: 10.1002/cne.900690309

✦ Synopsis

Studies of the reflexes in spinal primates have demonstrated the state of reflex depression ('spinal shock') which is so profound in these forms (Sherrington, 1898; and Fulton and Kellcr, '32). Sherrington ( '00, IT, p. 847) was inclined to think that the condition of the spinal cord is more normal a short time after transection than it is after weeks and months have elapsed. The early stages of depression, 'spinal shock,' pass off to be succeeded by permanent alterations that resemble a recrudescence of 'shock' and which he called 'isolation dystrophy.' He thought the latter is due to the permanent withdrawal from the spinal cells of supraseamental influences. He stated, " I n the monkey, 'shock' lasts longer and the 'isolation dystrophy' comes on earlier than in other animals commonly observed in the laboratory. It is the conjunction of tlie periods of these two phenomena which I imagine renders so difficult and so largely defeats attempts at observations of the proper spinal reactions of the monkey. If the overlap of the two is great, then no spinal reflexes or only the merest traces of them may be elicitable."

Although Sherrington ('00, 11, p. 846) stated that it made slight difference in the result whether the transection was rostra1 or caudal in the thoracic region of tlie monkey, Fulton and Keller ('32) reported that reflexes returned earlier when