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The Babinski Sign

11/17/2022
Sadie Davenport

Today is neurologist Joseph Babinski's birthday! It's a good day to talk about the "Babinski sign," which he first described in 1899. Babinski studied neurology in the 19th century under Jean-Martin Charcot, who is often considered the "founder of modern neurology." This test was one which Babinski developed over time by observing patients with various neurological issues (nervous system damage, epilepsy, and mental health issues) that were difficult to distinguish at the time. 

The Babinski sign is still used today: it tests the reflexes in a person's foot in order to determine if they have damage to or a disease involving their nervous system, spinal cord, or brain. The test is done by rubbing the sole of a person's foot with a blunt object, and analyzing the reflexes of their toes. View the image below to see that pointing the toes downward indicates normal nerve activity, while pointing the toes upward indicates nerve damage or disease. 

 Diagram of the Babinski sign.               Access Medicine search results for "the Babinski Sign."

Left image: This diagram is from the Wikipedia article on the Babinski sign. 

Right image: Search results for "the Babinski Sign" on Access Medicine, one of our library databases. The diagrams in this results list demonstrate how this test can be applied to different patient situations (assessing the spinal cord, paralysis, rehabilitation, etc.). 

Further reading:

  • In this article from the National Library of Medicine, you can read a more detailed overview of the Babinski reflex test (synonymous with Babinski sign, Babinski reflex). 
  • In this article (available publicly) in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr. Francois Sellal and professor Laurent Tatu discuss the recurring presence of the Babinski sign in Renaissance paintings. 
  • In this article called "Babinski the Great," you can read more about his achievements in neurology.
  • On Wikipedia, there are a number of additional "Babinski-like responses" that you can browse through. 

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