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Study design:

Flexion reflex study in motor complete human spinal cord injury (SCI).

Objectives:

To examine changes in the magnitude of the flexion reflex following functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the rectus femoris (RF) muscle.

Setting:

Bioengineering Unit, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

Methods:

The flexion reflex was evoked by electrical stimulation of the sural nerve, and was recorded in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle. RF muscle conditioning stimulation was performed at 0.7, 1, and 2 times motor threshold (× MT) over a range of conditioning test intervals.

Results:

The incidence of the early component of the flexion reflex (< 100 ms) was low, suggesting that this reflex component might be suppressed in SCI. The long latency flexion reflex component (> 120 ms) was observed in all subjects during control conditions and following sensorimotor conditioning. FES applied to the RF muscle …