Title: hypertonia
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - hypertonia
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11820
Status: current

Definition
Extreme tension of the muscles or arteries.

Note
This is often a result of an upper motor neuron lesion in the brain, which is accompanied by decreased synaptic inhibition and increased excitability of muscle.

Related Terms
- brain: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11647
- synaptic inhibition: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12111
- upper motor neuron: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12155

Source
- PAC, 2015, 87, 841. 'IUPAC Glossary of terms used in neurotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 874 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0103)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11820/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11820/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11820/xml

Citation: Citation: 'hypertonia' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11820
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-15T06:00:10+00:00