The clinical use of brainstem reflexes and hand-muscle reflexes

Brainstem reflexes and hand-muscle reflexes can be elicited and recorded with routine EMG equipment. Not all these reflexes are useful in clinical neurology. But those that are – the subject of this review – exhibit distinct patterns of abnormality that have clinical diagnostic and localizing value in various diseases, including cranial neuropathies, focal lesions within the cervical cord, brainstem, and brain, movement disorders, and pain.