Without this reflex, you won’t get very far.
Truly, are muscles the agents of movement and action?
Aren’t there more?
The truth is that muscles are the great source of information,
The hidden agent,
The hidden agent concealed behind thousands of receptors in muscles, myotendinous junctions, and tissues in general.
What’s the point of seeing if you don’t know whether the world has moved or you have?
What’s the point of feeling movement in your vestibular system if you don’t know whether your head moved or the ground did?
The truth is, the great informers—visual and vestibular—need an informant for contrast
A verifier of information.
This is called proprioception.
With cervical proprioception, the CNS can interpret visual and vestibular information correctly to create the appropriate, proportional response.
Confusion in this information will be perceived as vertigo or dizziness.
This is one of the reasons for the course on physiotherapy in the multisystem cervico-ocular system, by Iñaki Pastor and Lucila To.
Es la llave para el éxito en los problemas de equilibrio, inestabilidad y coordinación.
It’s the key to success in balance issues, instability, and coordination.
Cervical proprioception is fundamental in balance and its management, where gaze stability is the first step. One of the ways the neck influences the eyes, perhaps the most essential, is the cervico-ocular reflex (COR).
It’s the reflex that gets damaged in whiplash injuries,
Whether due to a car accident or a fall with the neck in the wrong position. Be careful, don’t only think about car accidents.
In this disorder, the COR is overactive and unbalanced with the vestibulo-ocular reflex.
The result?
The eyes move slowly and clumsily,
Especially during head movements. In other words… always.
Assessing and treating this reflex is needed for quality physiotherapy.
Of course, after any cervical treatment.
References
Pastor-Pons I. Terapia manual en el sistema oculomotor
Técnicas avanzadas para la cefalea y los trastornos del equilibrio.
Elsevier, 2 ed. 2019.
Cervico-ocular reflex upregulation in dizzy patients with asymmetric neck pathology.
Zamysłowska-Szmytke E, Adamczewski T, Ziąber J, Majak J, Kujawa J, Śliwińska-Kowalska M.Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019 Oct 16;32(5):723-733. doi: 10.13075/ijomeh.1896.01428. Epub 2019 Oct 7.
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