2.9 Tone and Reflexes Flashcards
tone
- amount of tension a muscle has at rest
- resting tone works against gravity to hold our limbs in position
resting threshold of tone
always signals going to muscle and up and down the spinal cord
What does someone who has high resting tone need to get to normal “relaxed”?
needs a lot of inhibitory signals to get to relaxed
What does someone with low resting tone need to get to contraction?
needs a lot of excitatory signals to contract the muscle
types of tone
- normal
- hyper
- hypo
two categories of hypertonicity
- spasticity
- rigidity
Spasticity is dependent upon
velocity
How is spasticity velocity dependent?
- if you move the limb slowly, can get through full ROM
- moving it quickly will increase the contraction
types of spasticity
- clonus
- spasms
- dystonia
- spastic co-contraction
What is the scale used to grade spasticity?
Ashworth scale
clonus
- UMN problem, usually found in distal extremities
- put a stretch on the muscle, it excites it
- unless you move them out of the position that produced the clonus, it potentiates itself and continues
- typically not a detriment to therapy
How do we refer to clonus?
by how many beats it has
spasm
involuntary contraction
spasm and therapy
typically not a detriment to therapy unless every time they do a motion, it creates a spasm
- constant twitching in the eyelid
- can get to where they become blind
blepharospasms
type of spasticity where we don’t really know why they have it
dystonia
dystonia
- can range from full body, cervical (torticollis), other areas
- not a clear cut definition
- affects number of different age groups
Who commonly gets spastic co-contraction?
CP
How does spastic co-contraction affect gait?
agonists and antagonists are both firing at the same time, can’t create coordinated, smooth movement
using spasms to advantage
a patient can figure out how to elicit and manipulate their spasms to facilitate a certain movement
