[Regurgitation and motor reactions in infants]

An interrelationship of regurgitation and a motor reaction (MR) of the type of a shudder was revealed in infants. A jerking motor activity occurred in lower rate of respiration and decrease of its amplitude. The muscles of respiration are also involved in the activity in this case, which leads at first to expiration and regurgitation and then to inspiration only. Expiration is attended by a specific component of a vomiting reaction--jerky contraction of the abdominal muscles directed at evacuation of the food from the gastrointestinal tract. It is shown that regurgitation occurs most frequently in babies born in a state of asphyxia in whom a shudder-type MR occurs very often.