What's the difference between jerk and spasm?

Jerk


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cut into long slices or strips and dry in the sun; as, jerk beef. See Charqui.
  • (v. t.) To beat; to strike.
  • (v. t.) To give a quick and suddenly arrested thrust, push, pull, or twist, to; to yerk; as, to jerk one with the elbow; to jerk a coat off.
  • (v. t.) To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand; as, to jerk a stone.
  • (v. i.) To make a sudden motion; to move with a start, or by starts.
  • (v. i.) To flout with contempt.
  • (n.) A short, sudden pull, thrust, push, twitch, jolt, shake, or similar motion.
  • (n.) A sudden start or spring.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The EMG silent periods (SP) produced in the open-close-clench cycle and jaw-jerk reflex were compared for duration before and after treatment with an occlusal bite splint.
  • (2) While tonic pupil and reduced sweating can be attributed to the affection of postganglionic cholinergic parasympathetic and sympathetic fibres projecting to the iris and sweat glands, respectively, the pathogenesis of diminished or lost tendon jerks remains obscure.
  • (3) In reflex-induced jerks this negative transient could be recognized as a component of the sensory evoked potential.
  • (4) A dynamic optimization technique to minimize jerk cost under the constraint on jerk input was applied to interpret the results, assuming that a major goal of skilled movements was to produce optimally smooth movements.
  • (5) The Peppers like to be jerks (at Dingwalls Swan dedicated a song to “all you whiney Britishers who can suck my American cock”), but don’t let the surface attitude fool you.
  • (6) Results from animal experiments and neuropathological studies suggest that the abolition of jerks in such cases is probably due to loss of facilitating influences from the cerebral cortex and central grey nuclei.
  • (7) Surgery caused or aggravated unilaterally diminished knee or ankle jerks in 3% and 10% of cases, respectively.
  • (8) This is a gladiatorial display – that is what people go to see.” Bray added: “The popular knee-jerk reaction will be we should ban airshows, but it’s very rare for such a crash to take place.
  • (9) High-frequency trading may or may not distort markets, but surely a knee-jerk reaction by banning it is not the answer.
  • (10) In order to overcome various drawbacks of the conventional polygraphic study of a relationship between myoclonus and EEG, the EEG preceding and following the myoclonic jerk was simultaneously averaged by the CNV program.
  • (11) Compared with the myoclonic-serotonergic syndrome evoked by 5-hydroxytryptophan in rats with 5.7-dihydroxytryptamine lesions, harmaline+5-hydroxytryptophan-treated rats displayed more continuous and greater axial myoclonic jerks and some postural differences.
  • (12) The effects of electrical stimulation and microinjection of sodium glutamate (0.5 M) in the sympathetic pressor areas of the dorsal medulla (DM), ventrolateral medulla (VLM), and parvocellular nucleus (PVC) on the knee jerk, crossed extension, and evoked potential of the L5 ventral root produced by intermittent electrical stimulation were studied in 98 adult cats anesthetized with chloralose and urethane.
  • (13) The knee jerk itself is seen as a "physiological artefact," resulting from a mode of stimulation that does not occur in life, with the normal function of its underlying circuitry still under debate.
  • (14) The patients did not significantly differ from controls on catch-up saccade amplitude, square wave jerk rate, or anticipatory saccade rate.
  • (15) It was confirmed that the technique of jerk-locked averaging with a backward averaging program was useful for detecting cortical spikes in association with the spontaneously occurring myoclonus, which are not recognized on the convential polygraph, and for evaluating the temporal and topographical relationship between the spike and the myoclonus.
  • (16) The typical electrophysiological correlates of myoclonus in Alzheimer's disease are similar to those of cortical reflex myoclonus, with a focal, contralateral negativity in the EEG preceding the myoclonic jerk.
  • (17) The analgesic effect of morphine in the rat tail jerk assay was enhanced by the serotonin uptake inhibitor, fluoxetine.
  • (18) In focal epileptic status, the single dose stopped paroxysmal activity and the associated clonic jerks for a few seconds.
  • (19) The occurrence of horizontal jerks with larger amplitudes than on Earth was observed during vertical optokinetic nystagmus in astronauts tested throughout a 7-day spaceflight.
  • (20) Only one patient felt his knee to be unstable (he had a positive pivot jerk).

Spasm


Definition:

  • (v. t.) An involuntary and unnatural contraction of one or more muscles or muscular fibers.
  • (v. t.) A sudden, violent, and temporary effort or emotion; as, a spasm of repentance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The generally accepted hypothesis is a coronary spasm but a direct cardiotoxicity of 5-FU cannot be.
  • (2) Oculomotor paresis with cyclic spasms is a rare syndrome, usually noticeable at birth or developing during the first year of life.
  • (3) The ophthalmic headache's crisis is caused, in fact, by a spasm of convergence on an unknown exophory of which the amplitude of fusion is satisfying, and the presence of which can only be seen with test under screen.
  • (4) The present case indicates that the possibility of osseous spines impinging on the facial nerve should be considered in all cases of facial spasm.
  • (5) The coronary arteriography reveals a spasm in the normal left anterior descendens artery.
  • (6) Increasing awareness of disorders such as coronary arterial spasm, functional impairment of subendocardial blood flow and the possible role of variant patterns of anatomic distribution of the coronary arterial tree, will provide a better understanding of their significance as determining or contributing factors in patients with the anginal syndrome.
  • (7) Thus one may speculate that endothelin plays a role in the coronary spasm which has been shown in patients with angina pectoris.
  • (8) in 1937, the arterial spasm may have occurred at the time of cerebral embolism.
  • (9) Coronary spasm was provoked by ergonovine maleate in four of 12 patients in group A (33%) and in three patients in group B (18%).
  • (10) In 2 cases, sublingual nitroglycerin failed to completely relieve the spasm.
  • (11) Furthermore, an association of tiapride-corticoids was effective in treating post-anaesthetic spasm of the glottis.
  • (12) Case histories of two patients with hypertensive LES and normal peristalsis in the body of the esophagus are contrasted to that of a patient with a hypertensive LES and diffuse esophageal spasm.
  • (13) Whether they affect ureteral motility in vivo or whether they can counteract ureteral spasm associated with ureteral stones have not been established.
  • (14) Thrombotic occlusion, in association with varying degrees of plaque disruption and coronary artery spasm, represents the major cause of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
  • (15) The patients with spasm on top of a fixed organic lesion underwent a successful aorto-coronary bypass graft together with resection of the pre- and sub-aortic nerve plexus.
  • (16) In vitro tests with isolated trachea or ileum of guinea pigs show that flupirtine possesses no or very weak antagonism against histamine-induced spasms.
  • (17) The spasms were inhibited by gallopamil (100 nM) and diltiazem (1 microM).
  • (18) Indeed this procedure is the only one which can act in a fitted manner on muscular spasms responsible of more than 60% of convergent squints.
  • (19) Such an exercise response should suggest significant fixed coronary stenosis in addition to coronary spasm.
  • (20) Evidence is provided for the concept of enlarged spasms (phenomenon of the spastic dominant) common to peptic ulcer.