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Abnormal posturing is an involuntary flexion or extension of the arms and legs, indicating severe brain injury.It occurs when one set of muscles becomes incapacitated while the opposing set is not, and an external stimulus such as pain causes the working set of muscles to contract. [1]
Brainstem damage above the red nucleus level may cause decorticate rigidity. Responding to a startling or painful stimulus, the arms flex and the legs extend. The cause is the red nucleus, via the rubrospinal tract, counteracting the extensor motorneuron's excitation from the lateral vestibulospinal and reticulospinal tracts.
In humans, true decerebrate rigidity is rare since the damage to the brain centers it might be caused by usually are lethal. However, decorticate rigidity can be caused by bleeding in the internal capsule which causes damage to upper motor neurons. The symptoms of decorticate rigidity are flexion in the upper limbs and extension in the lower limbs.
The saying refers to lower motor neuron symptoms in the upper extremity (arm) and upper motor neurons symptoms in the lower extremity (leg). Health professionals' understanding of impairments in muscles after an upper motor neuron lesion has progressed considerably in recent decades. However, a diagnosis of "spasticity" is still often used ...
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Hypertonia is a term sometimes used synonymously with spasticity and rigidity in the literature surrounding damage to the central nervous system, namely upper motor neuron lesions. [1] Impaired ability of damaged motor neurons to regulate descending pathways gives rise to disordered spinal reflexes , increased excitability of muscle spindles ...
Decorticate posturing, with elbows, wrists and fingers flexed, and legs extended and rotated inward. Brain herniation frequently presents with abnormal posturing, [2] a characteristic positioning of the limbs indicative of severe brain damage. These patients have a lowered level of consciousness, with Glasgow Coma Scores of three to five.
Four motor symptoms are considered cardinal signs in PD: slowness of movement (bradykinesia), tremor, rigidity, and postural instability. [1] Typical for PD is an initial asymmetric distribution of these symptoms, where in the course of the disease, a gradual progression to bilateral symptoms develops, although some asymmetry usually persists.