Retraining Reflexes: Clinical Translation of Spinal Reflex Operant Conditioning.

ABSTRACT: Neurological disorders, such as spinal cord injury, stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis cause motor impairments that are a huge burden at the individual, family, and societal levels. Spinal reflex abnormalities contribute to these impairments. Spinal reflex measurements play important roles in characterizing and monitoring neurological disorders and their associated motor impairments, such as spasticity, which affects nearly half of those with neurological disorders. Spinal reflexes can also serve as therapeutic targets themselves. Operant conditioning protocols can target beneficial plasticity to key reflex pathways; they can thereby trigger wider plasticity that improves impaired motor skills, such as locomotion. These protocols may complement standard

SUBMITTER: Eftekhar A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6095771 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature