Your Brain Actually Inhibits Your Reflexes

Hyperreflexia reveals that your body is constantly suppressing its own reflexes. When you experience uncontrollable twitching, it signals that your brain has lost its ability to quiet the nervous system’s natural excitability.

We usually think of reflexes as simple reactions, but your brain is secretly working in the background to keep them in check. Under normal conditions, upper motor neurons act like a volume knob, turning down the intensity of signals traveling to your muscles. If these pathways are damaged, that control is lost and your reflexes become hyperactive. It is a fascinating reminder that human movement is as much about what your brain stops you from doing as what it tells you to do.