TA EMG and SOL H-reflex Training Improves Function in SCI 1 Operant Conditioning to Increase Ankle Control or Decrease Reflex Excitability Improves 1 Reflex Modulation and Walking Function in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Operant conditioning to increase ankle control or decrease reflex excitability improves reflex modulation and walking function in chronic spinal cord injury.

Ankle clonus is common after spinal cord injury (SCI) and is attributed to loss of supraspinally mediated inhibition of soleus stretch reflexes and maladaptive reorganization of spinal reflex pathways. The maladaptive reorganization underlying ankle clonus is associated with other abnormalities, such as coactivation and reciprocal facilitation of tibialis anterior (TA) and soleus (SOL), which c...

Locomotor training improves premotoneuronal control after chronic spinal cord injury.

Spinal inhibition is significantly reduced after spinal cord injury (SCI) in humans. In this work, we examined if locomotor training can improve spinal inhibition exerted at a presynaptic level. Sixteen people with chronic SCI received an average of 45 training sessions, 5 days/wk, 1 h/day. The soleus H-reflex depression in response to low-frequency stimulation, presynaptic inhibition of soleus...

Operant conditioning of reciprocal inhibition in rat soleus muscle.

Operant conditioning of the H-reflex, the electrical analog of the spinal stretch reflex (SSR), induces activity-dependent plasticity in the spinal cord and might be used to improve locomotion after spinal cord injury. To further assess the potential clinical significance of spinal reflex conditioning, this study asks whether another well-defined spinal reflex pathway, the disynaptic pathway un...

Operant Conditioning of Tibialis Anterior and Soleus H-reflex Improves Spinal Reflex Modulation and Walking Function in Individuals with Motor-Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Training-Specific Neural Plasticity in Spinal Reflexes after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

The neural plasticity of spinal reflexes after two contrasting forms of walking training was determined in individuals with chronic, motor-incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). Endurance Training involved treadmill walking for as long as possible, and Precision Training involved walking precisely over obstacles and onto targets overground. Twenty participants started either Endurance or Precisio...