title: The effects of patterned electrical stimulation combined with voluntary contraction on spinal reciprocal inhibition in healthy individuals.
abstract: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of voluntary contraction (VC) on the modulation of reciprocal inhibition induced by patterned electrical stimulation (PES) in healthy individuals. Twelve healthy volunteers participated in this study. PES was applied to the common peroneal nerve with a train of 10 pulses at 100 Hz every 2 s for 20 min. VC comprised repetitive ankle dorsiflexion at a frequency of 0.5 Hz for 20 min. All participants performed the following three tasks: (i) VC alone, (ii) PES alone, and (iii) PES combined with VC (PES+VC). Reciprocal inhibition was assessed using a soleus H-reflex conditioning-test paradigm at the time points of before, immediately after, 10 min after, 20 min after, and 30 min after the tasks. PES+VC increased the amount of reciprocal inhibition, with after-effects lasting up to 20 min. PES alone increased reciprocal inhibition and maintained the after-effects on reciprocal inhibition for 10 min, whereas VC alone increased only immediately after the task. VC could modulate the plastic changes in spinal reciprocal inhibition induced by PES in healthy individuals. PES combined with VC has a potential to modulate impaired reciprocal inhibition and it may facilitate functional recovery and improve locomotion after central nervous system lesions.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine bDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine cJSPS, Overseas Research Fellow, Tokyo dDepartment of Physical Therapy, Yamagata Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Yamagata, Japan eDepartment of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: Tomofumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Michiyuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawakami
authors.forename: Katsuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Meigen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D006181:H-Reflex; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D010543:Peroneal Nerve / Q000502:physiology