There is no such thing as a primitive reflex
New Research
What the developmental literature calls "primitive reflexes" are the clinically visible motor output signatures of a sequential series of foundational autonomic initialization events – the Perinatal Autonomic Cascade. The movement observable from outside – the tonic labyrinthine reflex extension-flexion arc, the rooting reflex, the Moro reflex – is the surface signature of an initialization event whose actual function is occurring at the level of the fine fiber autonomic network, the neurochemical environment, and the calibration of vestibular-proprioceptive-cardiovascular integration. These patterns are not primitive in the sense of being superseded. They are foundational in the sense of being load-bearing.
The developmental sequence is not the replacement of lower-order patterns by higher-order ones-it is the stacking of higher-order patterns on top of completed lower-order initializations. If the lower-order initialization did not complete, the higher-order pattern stacks on top of an incomplete foundation, and the instability propagates upward through the developmental sequence in ways that may not become visible until much later, and may not be recognized as having their origin at the initialization layer.
We propose the term restructuring reflex as the correct functional category: a hardwired extracortical sensorimotor arc whose function is the one-time accomplishment of an irreversible autonomic calibration, establishing a new baseline state of neural, vascular, vestibular-proprioceptive, or somatic organization upon which subsequent development depends. There is no such thing as a primitive reflex. There are restructuring reflexes that completed, and restructuring reflexes that did not.
PREPRINT
Our two most recent preprints (the above) and The Perinatal Autonomic Cascade are the direct result of clinical and scholarly research done in Europe, and the subject of two advanced classes I will teach Saturdays August 8 and 22 on Zoom. More information about the classes can be found here on our new website.