title: Operant conditioning of rat H-reflex: effects on mean latency and duration.
abstract: We are currently studying the mechanisms of operantly conditioned changes in the H-reflex in the rat. Primate data suggest that H-reflex decrease is due to a positive shift in motoneuron firing threshold and a small decrease in the monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP), and that increase might be due to change in group-I oligosynaptic (especially disynaptic) input. To further evaluate the possibility of conditioned change in oligosynaptic input, we compared the mean latency (i.e., the average latency of the entire H-reflex) and the duration of control (i.e., pre-conditioning) H-reflexes with those of H-reflexes after up-conditioning or down-conditioning. Up-conditioning was associated with small, statistically significant increases in H-reflex mean latency [+0.11+/-0.05 (+/-SE) ms] and duration (+0.32+/-0.16 ms). The mean latency of the H-reflex increase (i.e., the part added to the H-reflex by up-conditioning) was 0.28+/-0.14 (+/-SE) ms greater than that of the control H-reflex. Down-conditioning had no significant effect on mean latency or duration. While these results indicate that operant conditioning does not greatly change H-reflex mean latency or duration, the effects detected with up-conditioning are consistent with the hypothesis that decreased inhibition, or increased excitation, by homonymous and heteronymous group-I oligosynaptic input contributes to the H-reflex increase produced by up-conditioning. Several other mechanisms might also account for these small effects.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nervous System Disorders, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health and State University of New York, Albany 12201-0509, USA. wolpaw@wadsworth.org
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wolpaw
authors.forename: X Y
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006181:H-Reflex / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009470:Muscle Spindles / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology