[WonderMomma]

That laugh.
Reminds me of Muttley.

[houseoftechno]

His startle reflex is hilarious and interesting. The startle is followed by a strong compulsion to leave the room and close the door, often several times, so it is a complex reaction with tones of OCD. He is surprisingly good natured following his startle reactions too. I imagine with a strong short circuit like that, he has learned to keep it positive and laugh along with his tormentors.

I was dying of laughter at both of them.

[houseoftechno]

MOVEMENT DISORDERS 4

Philip Thompson, in Blue Books of Neurology, 2010
Publisher Summary

The startle response has two components. The first component is a brief reflex at short latency. The second component follows at variable intervals encroaching on voluntary reaction time and is more prolonged. The clinical expression of an exaggerated startle response can be based on either component with different clinical implications in each case. The pathological enhancement of the initial short latency component is referred to as “hyperekplexia.” Exaggeration of the secondary component occurs in various neuropsychiatric and behavioral syndromes. The following findings in humans are consistent with the startle reflex originating in the caudal pontine reticular formation with efferent projections in bilateral reticulospinal pathways: (1) the response is bilateral, (2) caudal propagation speed is roughly half that of conduction in corticospinal tracts, (3) startle responses persist after corticospinal tract lesions causing hemiplegia, and (4) lesions of the pontine reticular formation can result in symptomatic hyperekplexia or abolish the startle response as in Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome (progressive supranuclear palsy). In humans, arousal potentiates the startle response and amygdala lesions diminish both arousal and the startle response. The latency and duration of the second component of the startle response fall within the range of voluntary reaction times. This component also has been considered an “orienting” response as part of the behavioral reaction toward a stimulus. The chapter describes the disorders of the first component of the startle response (hyperekplexia and startle and stiff person syndrome) and disorders of the second component of the auditory startle response (culture-bound startle syndromes and Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and startle), and it discusses the behavioral phenomena and startle response in psychiatric conditions.

So this man has hyperekplexia. I'd like to get that journal and read more about it, but not enough to drop $130.

[kellyhound]

mean but