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Article
Modulation of H-reflex depression with paired-pulse stimulation in healthy active humans
Rehabilitation Research and Practice
  • Preeti Deshpande Oza, University of the Pacific
  • Shauna Dudley-Javoroski, University of Iowa
  • Richard K. Shields, University of Iowa
ORCiD
Preeti Oza: 0000-0002-5553-6158
Document Type
Article
DOI
10.1155/2017/5107097
Publication Date
1-1-2017
Abstract

Depression of the Hoffman reflex (H-reflex) is used to examine spinal control mechanisms during exercise, fatigue, and vibration and in response to training. H-reflex depression protocols frequently use trains of stimuli; this is time-consuming and prevents instantaneous assessment of motor neuronal excitability. The purpose of this study was to determine if paired-pulse H-reflex depression is reproducible and whether paired-pulse stimulation adequately estimates the depression induced by the more traditional ten-pulse train. H-reflexes were elicited via ten-pulse trains at 0.1, 0.2, 1, 2, and 5 Hz in ten neurologically intact individuals on two separate days. We measured the depression elicited by the second pulse (H2) and the mean depression elicited by pulses 2–10 (Hmean). H2 was consistent at all frequencies on both days (r2 = 0.97, p < 0.05 , and ICC(3,1) = 0.81). H2 did not differ from Hmean (p < 0.05). The results indicate that paired-pulse H-reflex depression has high between-day reliability and yields depression estimates that are comparable to those obtained via ten-pulse trains. Paired-pulse H-reflex depression may be especially useful for studies that require rapid assessment of motor neuronal excitability, such as during exercise, fatigue, and vibration, or to establish recovery curves following inhibition.

Comments

Copyright © 2017 Preeti D. Oza et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation Information
Preeti Deshpande Oza, Shauna Dudley-Javoroski and Richard K. Shields. "Modulation of H-reflex depression with paired-pulse stimulation in healthy active humans" Rehabilitation Research and Practice Vol. 2017 (2017) p. 1 - 6 ISSN: 2090-2867
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/preeti-oza/4/