title: Extinction of the Hoffmann reflex by antidromic conduction.
abstract: We have shown that one cause of the extinction of the Hoffmann reflex by antidromic conduction in the alpha motor axons must be a relative refractoriness of the motoneuron pool. A hypothesized collision between the H-wave and the antidromic M-wave component is not disproved but it (and the incumbent assumptions about relative afferent and efferent conduction velocities) is shown to be unnecessary. A montonic variation of the M-wave with tonic soleus contraction (M-wave increasing with contraction) is observed but not explained.
mesh_terms: D005071:Evoked Potentials; D006181:H-Reflex; D006801:Humans; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009431:Neural Conduction; D012023:Reflex, Monosynaptic; D012032:Refractory Period, Electrophysiological