The human motor system regulates arm mechanics to produce stable postures during interactions with different physical environments. This occurs partly via involuntary mechanisms, including stretch reflexes. Previous single-joint studies demonstrated enhanced reflex sensitivity during interactions with compliant environments, suggesting reflex gain increases to enhance limb stability when that s...

UNLABELLED Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has high prevalence and may cause serious comorbidities. The aim of this trial was to show if simple noninvasive methods such as gag reflex and palatal reflex are prospective multivariate assessments of predictor variables for OSA. METHOD We evaluate gag reflex and palatal reflex, of fifty-five adult patients, and their subsequent overnight polysomnogr...

The Hoffmann reflex (H-reflex) is extensively used as both a research and clinical tool. The ease with which this reflex can be elicited in several muscles throughout the body makes it an attractive tool. This review discusses some of the important limitations in using the H-reflex. In particular, the inaccurate but widely held assumptions that the H-reflex (1). represents the monosynaptic refl...

[Purpose] Whole-body vibration (WBV) can induce reflex responses in muscles. A number of studies have reported that the physiological mechanisms underlying this type of reflex activity can be explained by reference to a stretch-induced reflex. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to test whether the WBV-induced muscular reflex (WBV-IMR) can be explained as a stretch-induced reflex. [Su...

Objective To determine average acoustic reflex thresholds in geriatric groups by assessing ipsilateral and contralateral acoustic reflex and reflex decay tests. Methods A total of 25 elders between ages 65-84 years (74.3±5.4) and 25 individuals between ages 18-45 years (30.4±4.2) were recruited for the study. After ear, nose, and throat examination, ipsilateral and contralateral acoustic refl...

To examine neural aspects of motor control in the glenohumeral joint, this study evaluates utilization of an innate spinal segmental pathway, the spinal stretch reflex, as an investigational tool that reflects neural circuitry. The purpose of this study was to determine if this reflex could be evoked from the infraspinatus muscle, if the testing apparatus and protocol for elicitation were relia...

The effect of whole body vibration (WBV) on reflex responses is controversially discussed in the literature. In this study, three different modalities of reflex activation with increased motor complexity have been selected to clarify the effects of acute WBV on reflex activation: (1) the electrically evoked H-reflex, (2) the mechanically elicited stretch reflex, and (3) the short-latency respon...

The interpretation of changes in the soleus H reflex is problematic in the face of reflex gain changes, a nonlinear input/output relationship for the motoneuron pool, and a nonhomogeneous response of different motoneurons to afferent inputs. By altering the stimulus intensity to maintain a constant reflex output, threshold tracking allows a relatively constant population of alpha-motoneurons to...

The masseteric jaw closure reflex was utilized as a model system with which to gauge the functional activity of central noradrenergic neurons. This system was chosen because it is a simple monosynaptic reflex the neuronal substrate of which receives a dense noradrenergic input. The modulatory effects of norepinephrine (NE) on this response in the intact, chloral hydrate-anesthetized rat were st...