PMID- 16846960
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20061215
LR  - 20060718
IS  - 0899-0220 (Print)
IS  - 0899-0220 (Linking)
VI  - 23
IP  - 1-2
DP  - 2006 Mar-Jun
TI  - On the methods employed to record and measure the human soleus H-reflex.
PG  - 55-62
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate if the magnitude of the soleus H-reflex 
      is different depending on the method employed to measure its size (peak-to-peak 
      amplitude vs. area). In this study, 13 healthy human subjects participated, while 
      the soleus H-reflex was induced via conventional methods. In the first 
      experiment, the soleus H-reflex was recorded via two monopolar electrodes and was 
      evoked at least at eight different stimulation intensities in respect to the 
      recovery curve of the H-reflex and at three different inter-stimulus intervals 
      (ISIs) (8, 5, and 2 s). The ISI refers to the time delay between the single 
      pulses delivered to the posterior tibial nerve within a single trial. In the 
      second experiment, the effects of common peroneal nerve (CPN) stimulation at 
      short (2-4 ms) and at long (60-120 ms) conditioning test (C-T) intervals on the 
      soleus H-reflex elicited every 5 s were established. Control and conditioned 
      reflexes were recorded via a single differential bipolar electrode. In both 
      experiments, H-reflexes were quantified by measuring their size as peak-to-peak 
      amplitude and as area under the full-wave rectified waveform. The reflex 
      responses recorded through two monopolar electrodes across stimulation 
      intensities and ISIs measured as peak-to-peak amplitude had larger values than 
      measured as area. In contrast, the magnitude of the reflexes, conditioned by CPN 
      stimulation at either short or long C-T intervals and recorded via a single 
      differential electrode, were not significantly different when measured as 
      peak-to-peak amplitude or as area. Our findings indicate that monopolar 
      recordings yield different reflex sizes depending on the method employed to 
      measure the reflex size, and that the H-reflex measured as area might detect 
      better the homosynaptic reflex depression. The lack of observing such differences 
      with bipolar recordings might be related to changes of the reflex shape at a 
      given stimulus intensity due to inhibitory inputs. The implications of our 
      findings are discussed in respect to human reflex studies.
FAU - Knikou, Maria
AU  - Knikou M
AD  - Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Staten Island University Hospital, Staten 
      Island, NY 10314, USA. knikou@mail.csi.cuny.edu
FAU - Taglianetti, Cory
AU  - Taglianetti C
LA  - eng
PT  - Clinical Trial
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - England
TA  - Somatosens Mot Res
JT  - Somatosensory & motor research
JID - 8904127
SB  - IM
MH  - Action Potentials/physiology
MH  - Adult
MH  - Electric Stimulation/*methods
MH  - Electrodes
MH  - H-Reflex/*physiology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Muscle, Skeletal/*innervation/physiology
MH  - Neural Inhibition/physiology
MH  - Peroneal Nerve/*physiology
MH  - Reaction Time/physiology
MH  - Spinal Cord/physiology
MH  - Tibial Nerve/*physiology
EDAT- 2006/07/19 09:00
MHDA- 2006/12/16 09:00
CRDT- 2006/07/19 09:00
PHST- 2006/07/19 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2006/12/16 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2006/07/19 09:00 [entrez]
AID - T5864X6731QNU664 [pii]
AID - 10.1080/08990220600702715 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Somatosens Mot Res. 2006 Mar-Jun;23(1-2):55-62. doi: 10.1080/08990220600702715.