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The corneal reflex and the R2 component of the blink reflex

Laboratorio di Neurofisiologia, V Clinica Neurologica, Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche (Drs. Berardelli, Cruccu, and Manfredi), Università di Roma, "La Sapienza," Italy; and the University Department of Neurology (Drs. Rothwell, Day, and Marsden), Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital Medical School, London, UK.

A reflex contraction of the human orbicularis oculi muscles can be evoked by stimulation of either the supraorbital region ("blink reflex") or the cornea ("corneal reflex"). We found that the latency of the corneal reflex was longer, and the duration was longer than the R2 component of the blink reflex. The absolute refractory period of the R2 component of the blink reflex was longer after supraorbital than after corneal conditioning stimulation. When the R2 component of the blink reflex was habituated by repetitive stimuli, stimulation of the cornea still evoked a reflex, but supraorbital stimulation produced only a depressed R2 response. These findings suggest that the two reflexes do not have identical neural connections.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Professor Manfredi, V Clinica Neurologica. Viale dell Universita No. 30, 00185 Roma, Italia.

The initial experiments were performed in Rome and were supported by grants from the Consiglio Nazionale della Ricerche (CNR) and Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. A Berardelli was supported by the Medical Research Council. J. C. Rothwell was a Royal Society University Research Fellow. G. Cruccu was supported by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.

Accepted for publication September 27, 1984.

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