Normal electrically induced reflexes (“H reflexes”) in a 2-week-old infant with acrania and cerebral dysgenesis

Abstract A patient with cerebral dysgenesis, who survived for 27 days after birth, had normal electrically induced reflexes (EIRs) at 2 weeks of age. Since neuropathological findings showed absence of pyramids, cortico-spinal tracts, and cerebellar vermis, it is obvious that these neural elements are not essential for the elicitation of the reflex, nor for the changes in reflex amplitude which occur when the infant goes from wakefulness to sleep, or vice versa .