Utilization of the Tonus Regulating Reflexes in the Rehabilitation of the Apallic Syndrome

Abstract

It is unfortunate that one customarily identifies and analogizes the phylogenetic phases of development of man with his ontogenesis, i.e., assuming in the case of a “disintegration” or a destruction of the brain that the ontogenetic “levels” of cerebral function are identical with phylogenetic “phases.” This view is controversial. In psychiatry, correspondingly, a demented person does not sink to the level of a dog or, finally, to that of a reptile. Even under the conditions of dementia he possesses specifically human characteristics which, together with the remaining mental activity, do not allow him as an individual to exist at another phylogenetic level. Basically, this is also true for the motoric functional levels. The specific form of the tonicity pattern in man is always apparent and thus produces a state which is peculiar to man and which only appears in cases of cerebral destruction. Therefore, we assume that the exercises leading to a redistribution of tonicity and to the restitution of functions and, finally, of performances, are essentially bound to the simultaneous integration of reflex chains at a higher level, and particularly at the level of the cerebral cortex of man (Müller, 1968).