Kohnstamm's phenomenon
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First described by German physician Oscar Kohnstamm in 1915, Kohnstamm's phenomenon is a sustained involuntary contraction of a muscle after a prolonged voluntary contraction. The simplest demonstration is to have a subject press against the wall by adducting the arm and then ask to step away from the wall. The arm will involuntarily rise.
Russian scientists Victor Gurfinkel, Mikhail Lebedev and Yuri Levick used Kohnstamm's phenomenon to activate tonogenic structures in humans and thereby demonstrate postural automatisms, such as neck reflexes.
[edit] See also
- Motor control
- Postural aftercontraction
[edit] References
- Kohnstamm, O. Demonstration einer Katatonieartigen Erscheimung beim Gesunden (Katatonusversuch). Neurol. Zentral B1 34S: 290-291, 1915.
- Gurfinkel, V.S., Lebedev, M.A., Levick, Yu.S. (1992) What about the so-called neck reflexes in humans? In: A. Bertoz, W. Graf, P. P. Vidal (Eds) The Head-Neck Sensory Motor System, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press: 543-547.
- Gurfinkel, V.S., Levik, Yu.S., Lebedev, M.A. (1989) Immediate and remote postactivation effects in the human motor system. Neirofiziologiya (Kiev) 21: 343-351. Translation into English: Neurophysiology 21: 247-253.
- Gurfinkel, V.S., Levik, Yu.S., Lebedev, M.A. (1989) Postural automatisms revealed by enhancement of the tonic background. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 305:1266-1269.
