Abstract
The main emphasis of this study is to determine the effect of stretch velocity on stretch reflex gain and threshold during elbow extension in the paretic upper limb of 13 hemiparetic stroke subjects. Ten velocities ranging from 6 to 150°/s were applied in random fashion. The resulting reflex torques were subjected to two different quantitative approaches following subtraction of passive torques obtained at the 6°/s velocity to determine the reflex threshold and gain. Both approaches determined changes in reflex threshold and gain as a function of stretch velocity in all subjects tested. The relative effects of threshold versus gain changes on stretch reflex induced flexion torques were tested for a 60°/s increase in stretch velocity from 45° to 105°/s. In all but one of the 13 subjects the effect of reflex gain became the predominant contributor to the reflex torque before the end of the stretch. The neurophysiological and clinical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1464-1467 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology - Proceedings |
| Volume | 2 |
| State | Published - 2003 |
| Event | A New Beginning for Human Health: Proceddings of the 25th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society - Cancun, Mexico Duration: Sep 17 2003 → Sep 21 2003 |
Keywords
- Hemiparetic stroke
- Spasticity
- Stretch reflex
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Signal Processing
- Biomedical Engineering
- Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
- Health Informatics