Introduction
This study was prompted by the neurological examination of newborn infants in the Collaborative Child Development Program of the Charity Hospital, New Orleans, La. Grasp reflexes are easily elicited in the newborn, and because of the large numbers of babies in the nurseries of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans it was decided to study the characteristics of these responses in a systematic fashion. One of the main objectives of this study was to determine the relationship, if any, between the tonic neck reflexes and the grasping responses in the newborn without evident disease of the central or the peripheral nervous system. At a later date the results of similar studies in older infants, premature infants, and brain-damaged infants will be reported.
Material and Methods
Two hundred (200) newborns in the nurseries of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans were studied. These babies were full-term, presented no gross deformities,
