Is It Possible To Fake A Normal Bicep Reflex? I

Posted on Tue, 20 Nov 2018

Question: Is it possible to fake a normal bicep reflex? I had a neurological exam last week by a neurologist. When she checked the biceps reflex, it seemed like my arm didn’t do anything. In hindsight, this was dumb but when she checked again, I “decided” to move my arm. (I think I moved it much more than a normal bicep reflex would move actually, now that I’ve watched videos on the bicep reflex.) I was so worried about possibly getting bad news so I decided to move my arm. I don't have any symptoms or reasons to think my reflexes are poor though. She checked either 2 or 3 more times. At the end, she told me all my reflexes were normal. Now, I’m not sure if I do have normal reflexes or if I just “tricked” her. Would a competent neurologist be tricked by intentional movement on a bicep reflex test? Maybe she checked 4 or 5 times because she wanted to be certain what was going on, and it’s a good sign she was thorough?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Erion Spaho (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
A competent Neurologist cannot be tricked.

Detailed Answer:
Hello and thanks for being on " Ask a Doctor " service.

I have read your new question and here is my advice.

A competent Neurologist can not be tricked by intentional movements during reflexes evaluation.

Since the conclusion was that the reflexes were normal after several times of evaluation, you should not be worried about.

In addition, reflexes and other components of the neurological examination are guided by and compared with symptoms, or the suspected condition, so, if there is no reason to justify abnormal reflexes, you shouldn't think that there is a problem.

Hope you found the answer helpful.

Let me know if I can assist you further.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj