FACIAL PALSY1 1Read at the seventh Biennial Congress of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, May, 1958.

Paralysis of the face results from any interruption to the nervous pathway from the cerebral cortex to the muscles. The character of the paralysis differs, however, according to whether the disease involves the path above the facial nucleus, the nucleus itself or the fibres of the nerve; thus we may differentiate between supranuclear paralysis on the one hand and intranuclear paralysis on the other. In the former, the upper muscles of the face are little, if at all, affected, while those in the lower half suffer maximally; in the latter all parts of the face are affected. In supranuclear paralysis voluntary movements are more affected than emotional movements, whereas in nuclear or infranuclear paralysis they suffer equally. There is also an important difference in the electrical reactions in the two forms. In supranuclear disease the reactions are normal, but in lesions of the nucleus or nerve changes occur in the fibres which result in the loss of conductivity and the preservation only of the galvanic excitability of the muscle fibres