Hildenhagen O, Schiffter R
J Neurol. 1976 Aug 6;213(2):133-42. doi: 10.1007/BF00313274.
86 residents of several homes for the aged in Berlin, aged 75 to 96 years (mean age 86.3 years), were examined neurologically. Many showed the following aberrant neurological signs: Pallaesthesia and dermolexia were extinct in the lower extremities; the ankle jerks could not be elicited; the palmomental, orbicularis oris reflex, grasping and the snout reflexes were positive; there was a hypokinetic-hypertonic motor syndrome. The statistical analyses and the follow-up dynamics of our findings argue for such age-dependent changes of the CNS as the basis for the grasping and snout reflexes and for the involuntary movements of the elderly.
