Reflexes involved in a Functional Scoliosis and How to Affect Change
The following N.O.T. (Neural Organization Technique), Scoliosis protocol, developed by Dr. Carl A. Ferreri, is from more than 40 years of his personal research and clinical practice, and is based on Acupuncture, Applied Kinesiology, and Chiropractic.
A Functional Scoliosis is a neurophysiological condition manifests in an aberrant disorganization within the Head Righting and Pelvic Centering Reflex Systems of the body and the Reactive Muscle Systems they control. These reflex systems are known as the Cloacal Pelvic Centering Reflex System, the Labyrinthine/Ocular Head Righting Reflex System, the Vestibulo-Ocular Righting Reflex System and the Reactive Muscle Complex. These are the innate neural reflex systems involved in both gait and posture. A disorganization between the normal interaction of these neural reflex systems occurs and results in a muscle imbalance which causes a fixed gait position from which the body cannot release.
Dr. Ferreri confirmed that the neurological basis for the Functional Scoliosis was an insult to one of the primary survival systems. These primal survival systems are Feeding, Fight/Flight and Reproduction. Everything that happens to the body must involve impact on or be expressed through these survival systems.
The part of the Fight/Flight system related to the gait function, body positioning and centering, is the neurological mechanism involved in a Functional Scoliosis.
The first of these reflex systems to be considered are the Labyrinthine/Ocular Head Righting System and the Cloacal Pelvic Centering Reflex System, both individually and in their relation to each other.
The Labyrinthine Ocular System (one of the refined functions of the Vestibular/Ocular Head Righting Reflex System), allows the head to center or “right” to itself, to the body, over the pelvis, to the horizon and to the immediate environment. The Cloacal System allows the pelvis to center to itself, to the body, to gravity and to the immediate environment. It is the coordinated function of these reflex systems which are responsible for gait, posture, body balance and the muscle tonus related to any body position.
The neurological fault which created the scoliosis condition is found in these primal survival neural reflex systems which govern gait and muscle coordination. These reflex systems are active in both the Fight/Flight and the Reproductive Survival Systems.
The Cloacal Pelvic Centering Reflex System is the innate neural reflex system necessary to center the pelvis in all normal daily activity, as well as reproductive activity. It has two primary functions. One is specifically involved in centering the pelvis to gravity and the body and then in its relation to, and interaction with the Head Righting reflexes, is involved in centering of the pelvis under the head. This is the primary reflex mechanism related to the reactive muscle function found in the normal cross gait function. The Cloacal Reflex System is divided into two divisions, the anterior and posterior. Each division of this gait reflex system must act on its own, for its own individual functions and then with the other half for total pelvic centering function.
These reflexes must also act and react with the Head Righting reflex mechanisms, so that the head can right to the pelvis and the pelvis can center under the head to totally orient to the environment.
In a reactive muscle system, as with any other system, part of the coordination and control for this activity can be found in the conservation of energy phenomenon within the body. When a muscle is not being used to move or support the body, the tension or tonus in it is turned down or defacilitated to conserve energy. In movement when one muscle or muscle group is activated (facilitated), the antagonistic and/or reactive muscle or muscle group is defacilitated (deactivated) to the same degree so that the body does not resist its own activity. These facilitation and defacilitation reflex patterns allow the body to move smoothly in the myriad of possible postures. These reflexes are the specific neurological control systems for coordinated muscle function.
The Cloacal, Labyrinthine/Ocular Centering Righting Reflex Systems can therefore be considered as the computer chips, already programmed, on which we build the moving and standing gaits for survival and the learned movements for sports, dance, work, etc.
The Labyrinthine Ocular section and its relation to the coordinated function with the Cloacal reflex is where the primary neurological deficit is found in a Scoliosis. The labyrinthine section of the Head Righting Reflex orients the head to gravity in the static position, and in its coordinated activity with the Pelvic Centering Reflex system (Cloacal), rights the head over the pelvis in the static position, and in its coordinated activity with the Pelvis in the static position and governs posterior gait function. The ocular section of this head righting reflex orients the head to the horizon, to its environment and to itself, and as part of this complex, rights the head to the pelvis in the static position and governs the anterior gait function.
These reflex mechanisms, both individually and collectively, are responsible for the coordinated muscle activity of body position and the moving gait function. Even though gait implies motion, it is the Labyrinthine-Ocular Head Righting Reflex System coordinated with the Cloacal Pelvic Centering Reflex System which controls the gait positions. To understand this apparent paradox, it is important to understand that each section of the gait motion is regarded by the body to be a separate body posture, a single frame or map in the visual centers. Gait activity is viewed by the body as if it were a motion picture, comprised of an almost endless series of single frame pictures. The extent of the scoliosis is very specifically determined by the particular gait “frame” registered in the visual centers found in the gait fault. A deficit in the ocular part of this reflex is responsible for the fixation of the gait which underlies the fixed muscle imbalance involved in the Functional Scoliosis.
Once this reflex system is compromised for any reason, it cannot efficiently monitor the reactive muscle activity of the trunk muscles to leg muscles to pelvic muscles in all of their varied functions.
This can be specifically demonstrated in the case of the gait mechanism. Because of the disorganization of the centering reflex system, even a relatively mild trauma can be sufficient to disturb the muscular balance. Under these circumstances, the muscles involved in the gait position on one side of the trunk cannot reset to those on the other side, nor can they reset to the leg and pelvic muscles, because all the muscles are engaged in the “perceived” activity of gait. In the normal gait position the shoulders are turned in one direction and the pelvis in the other, causing a twist in the trunk.
The trauma that caused the condition of Functional Scoliosis caused a specific neural disorganization within the gait monitoring postural system which then sent the information to the muscle system to put the body into a specific locked posture or frame in an attempt to protect itself. Once the muscles are reset back to their normal chain reactive sequence, the cranial portion is addressed and reset. After the cranial corrections, the Vestibular (Ocular) Spinal Tract needs to be activated to the new body position, where the reset Ocular, Vestibular and Shoulders are oriented to the pelvis, front and back.
The condition of the Functional Scoliosis is now corrected. The neural reflex system that created the muscle imbalance in the first place is restored to normal function and the reactive muscle system is restored to balanced function. The specific visual deficit in the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex system is corrected. The Vestibulo-Spinal Tract, the postural visualization reflex system and the Shoulder to pelvis positional reflex mechanism related to the condition is all normalized.
The labyrinthine righting reflex is a reflex that is initiated after the vestibular apparatus has sensed that the body is not erect. The reflex acts to restore the body to the standing posture. The reflex is initiated by the head, wherein it moves back into position, and the rest of the body follows. It is part of the Cloacal/Gait centering system.
The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) is a reflex eye movement that stabilizes images on the retina during head movement by producing an eye movement in the direction opposite to head movement, thus preserving the image on the center of the visual field. For example, when the head moves to the right, the eyes move to the left, and vice versa. Since slight head movement is present all the time, the VOR is very important for stabilizing vision: patients whose VOR is impaired find it difficult to read using print, because they cannot stabilize the eyes during small head tremors. The VOR does not depend on visual input and works even in total darkness or when the eyes are closed. However, in the presence of light, the fixation reflex is also added to the movement. (1)
The VOR is ultimately driven by signals from the vestibular apparatus in the inner ear. The semicircular canals detect head rotation and drive the rotational VOR, whereas the otoliths detect head translation and drive the translational VOR. The main “direct path” neural circuit for the horizontal rotational VOR is fairly simple. It starts in the vestibular system, where semicircular canals get activated by head rotation and send their impulses via the vestibular nerve (cranial nerve VIII) through Scarpa’s ganglion and end in the vestibular nuclei in the brainstem. From these nuclei, fibers cross to the contralateral cranial nerve VI nucleus (abducens nucleus). There they synapse with 2 additional pathways. One pathway projects directly to the lateral rectus of eye via the abducens nerve. Another nerve tract projects from the abducens nucleus by the medial longitudinal fasciculus to the oculomotor nuclei, which contain motorneurons that drive eye muscle activity, specifically activating the medial rectus muscles of the eye through the oculomotor nerve. (2)
References:
1) “Sensory Reception: Human Vision: Structure and function of the Human Eye” vol. 27, p. 179 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 19Straka H, Dieringer N (2004).
2) “Basic organization principles of the VOR: lessons from frogs”. Prog. Neurobiol. 73 (4): 259–309. doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2004.05.003. PMID 15261395.87
Tonic Neck Righting Reflexes(TNRR)
TNNR is first observed when doing Basic Pattern Testing of a newborn.
Paine (1960), Prechtl and Beintema (1964), and Andre-Thomas et al. (1960) have pointed out, The tonic neck-righting reflex, in which passive or active rotation of the head to one side is followed by rotation of the shoulders, trunk, and pelvis in the same direction. In the true neck-righting response, there is a momentary delay between the head rotation and the following of the shoulders, as opposed to the automatic, sudden, and complete body rotation in immediate response to a passive turn of the head that may occur in some abnormal states.
References:
(Source: Hanyes, Una (1979) A developmental approach to casefinding: among infants and children. Washington: U.S. Public Health Service.
Written & Researched by Annalee Kitay, D. C., Certified Neural Organization Technique Practitioner and Trainer.
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