Moro reflex
English
Etymology
Named after Austrian physician and pediatrician Ernst Moro (1874–191), who was the first in western medicine to describe the reflex.
Noun
Moro reflex (plural Moro reflexes)
- (physiology) A normal primitive reflex elicited by a sudden stimulus, involving abduction and extension of the arms, followed by adduction; it develops between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation and disappears at 3–6 months of age.
- 2014 December 5, Marina Hyde, “Childbirth is as awful as it is magical, thanks to our postnatal ‘care’”, in The Guardian:
- For reasons I shan’t bore you with, I got them to induce me at 39 weeks, at 10am, with the epidural going in first, and it was all a dream. […] But it was all over in time for my daughter to catch the Nigeria v Argentina World Cup game that evening, during which she seemed to reckon everything was miles offside. (Or was that just the Moro reflex?)
See also
- startle reflex
Further reading
- “Moro reflex”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
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