The appearance of such signs reflects the area of brain dysfunction rather than a specific disorder which may be diffuse, such as a dementia, or localised, such as a tumor.
[2] These reflexes are believed to be "hard-wired" before birth, and are therefore able to be elicited in the newborn.
As the brain matures, certain areas (usually within the frontal lobes) exert an inhibitory effect, thus causing the reflex to disappear.
When disease processes disrupt these inhibitory pathways, the reflex is "released" from inhibition and can be elicited once again, hence the term "frontal release sign".
[3] Some frontal release signs and their role in infancy:[citation needed]