Brain : a journal of neurology
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Electromyographic (EMG) flexor muscle responses evoked by electrical stimulation of ipsilateral peripheral nerves were studied in 16 patients with clinically complete spinal cord transection. Stimuli were applied either to a cutaneous nerve (sural) or to a mixed nerve (tibial) and muscle responses were recorded from tibialis anterior, biceps femoris and rectus femoris. EMG recordings after both sural and tibial nerve stimulation showed that distinct early and late ipsilateral flexor muscle responses could be elicited. ⋯ The low threshold of the late reflex corresponded to the excitation of relatively rapidly conducting afferents and its central spinal delay was more than 100 ms. The late reflexes were compared with those described by Andén et al. (1964) in the acute spinal cat injected with DOPA and were found to have similar characteristics. The mechanism for the increase in latency of the late response is discussed in relation to the interpretation of Lundberg (1979).