Primitive reflexes beyond neonatal paediatrics: primitive reflexes and the visual system

Currently, knowledge of primitive reflexes (PRs) is focused on the neonatal paediatric level. The tests performed are a useful tool for paediatricians, and they can be used in a simple way during the standard periodic medical evaluation of each child [1]. It is common that once possible alterations or pathologies are ruled out, PRs are no longer an essential part of the neonatal follow-up in most cases and become secondary; however, these reflexes may be present in the absence of a manifest brain pathology [2]. Certain skills of the visual system in children have an early but relatively slow developmental process, and although at first glance there may be nothing alarming because the children do not show anything out of the ordinary, their retained presence may cause difficulties in such important visual processes as motility, projection, binocularity, or even stereoscopic vision. Many of these difficulties have a motor component, based on the correct appearance and inhibition, in an orderly fashion, of the RPs. During the first year of life, because there is greater stimulation, there is greater involvement of the higher brain centres, which results in a progressive inhibition of the RPs beyond 6–12 months and their subsequent transformation into postural reflexes [3].
Their inadequate inhibition can manifest in 2 ways, the first affecting visual perception and the second affecting ocular motility. Both may seem unconnected, but they are linked in practice by a common element: the human motor system, and more explicitly by the development of RPs beyond the neonatal period. When a child shows visual disturbances that cannot be qualified as pathological, there is a tendency to look for the consequences and not always for the causes. The problem is that looking for the cause can become an odyssey, because cross-referencing data, correlating symptoms, and interpreting what the body shows us is not an easy task.
Looking back in history, in 1966, as a result of a political decision on the birth rate, the so-called 770 decree was carried out in the Romania of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, which was an attempt to increase the population almost indiscriminately to consolidate itself as a great power. Unfortunately, it became one of the most studied sociological cases because it led to a plethora of cases with learning disabilities. The explosive birth rate forced by the dictator led to massive abandonment of newborns in orphanages. The neglect of...


View full text...