The Spinal Facilitation Hypothesis and Reflex Arcs in Modern Osteopathic Medicine

The spinal cord is an organ capable of sending and receiving a lot of biological and electrical information. It is not just a sending and receiving channel, but a living structure capable of autonomously processing the afferent and efferent notifications with which it comes into contact. The osteopathic neurological model includes the concept of facilitation of the spinal segment, that is, a reflex arc that is established in a spinal segment between two visceral and/or somatic structures, creating a loop of chronicity. This mechanism that implies a reflex arc would explain the somatic symptoms coming from a visceral disorder, or vice versa, involving the specific neural segment of visceral and somatic innervation. Such a reflex arc, due to the bioelectrical complexity of the nervous system, may not occur. The article briefly reviews some concepts of neurophysiology to raise new reflections on whether or not to consider the hypothesis of the facilitated segment and to have a different vision in clinical pictures that are not always easy to frame.