One or more of three rimitive reflexes (palmomental snout, and corneomandibular) was elicited in 63.8% of 58 parkinsonism patients in the sixth through ninth decades of life. The incidences of the palmomental and snout reflexes in parkinsonism patients did not differ significantly from the incidences in 60 normal subjects of similar ages.
The incidence of the corneomandibular reflex in parkinsonism patients was approximately 2 1/2 times greater than the incidence observed in the normal subjects. The high incidence of the corneomandibular reflex in parkinsonism appears to be related to the disease, but the incidences observed for the palmomental and snout reflexes can be attributed to aging.
