Reasoning that the autonomic nervous system plays a principal role as the final common pathway in mediating somatic reactions to emotional stimuli, Richmond and Lustman challenge the concept of physiological vagotonia in the infant and demonstrate that there are significant individual differences among newborn

infants in autonomic function as measured by reflex vasodilatation and reflex pupillary dilatation to sound. These differences are both quantitative and qualitative. The importance of these findings for psychosomatic medicine is discussed.