@article {3095,
	title = {H-reflex up-conditioning encourages recovery of EMG activity and H-reflexes after sciatic nerve transection and repair in rats.},
	journal = {The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience},
	volume = {30},
	year = {2010},
	month = {12/2010},
	pages = {16128{\textendash}16136},
	abstract = {Operant conditioning of the spinal stretch reflex or its electrical analog, the H-reflex, produces spinal cord plasticity and can thereby affect motoneuron responses to primary afferent input. To explore whether this conditioning can affect the functional outcome after peripheral nerve injury, we assessed the effect of up-conditioning soleus (SOL) H-reflex on SOL and tibialis anterior (TA) function after sciatic nerve transection and repair. Sprague Dawley rats were implanted with EMG electrodes in SOL and TA and stimulating cuffs on the posterior tibial nerve. After control data collection, the sciatic nerve was transected and repaired and the rat was exposed for 120 d to continued control data collection (TC rats) or SOL H-reflex up-conditioning (TU rats). At the end of data collection, motoneurons that had reinnervated SOL and TA were labeled retrogradely. Putative primary afferent terminals [i.e., terminals containing vesicular glutamate transporter-1 (VGLUT1)] on SOL motoneurons were studied immunohistochemically. SOL (and probably TA) background EMG activity recovered faster in TU rats than in TC rats, and the final recovered SOL H-reflex was significantly larger in TU than in TC rats. TU and TC rats had significantly fewer labeled motoneurons and higher proportions of double-labeled motoneurons than untransected rats. VGLUT1 terminals were significantly more numerous on SOL motoneurons of TU than TC rats. Combined with the larger H-reflexes in TU rats, this anatomical finding supports the hypothesis that SOL H-reflex up-conditioning strengthened primary afferent reinnervation of SOL motoneurons. These results suggest that H-reflex up-conditioning may improve functional recovery after nerve injury and repair.},
	keywords = {conditioning, peripheral nerve, plasticity, Reflex, regeneration, Spinal Cord},
	issn = {1529-2401},
	doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4578-10.2010},
	url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21123559},
	author = {Yi Chen and Wang, Yu and Lu Chen and Sun, Chenyou and English, Arthur W. and Jonathan Wolpaw and Xiang Yang Chen}
}
@article {3191,
	title = {Operant conditioning of reciprocal inhibition in rat soleus muscle.},
	journal = {Journal of neurophysiology},
	volume = {96},
	year = {2006},
	month = {10/2006},
	pages = {2144{\textendash}2150},
	abstract = {Operant conditioning of the H-reflex, the electrical analog of the spinal stretch reflex (SSR), induces activity-dependent plasticity in the spinal cord and might be used to improve locomotion after spinal cord injury. To further assess the potential clinical significance of spinal reflex conditioning, this study asks whether another well-defined spinal reflex pathway, the disynaptic pathway underlying reciprocal inhibition (RI), can also be operantly conditioned. Sprague-Dawley rats were implanted with electromyographic (EMG) electrodes in right soleus (SOL) and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles and a stimulating cuff on the common peroneal (CP) nerve. When background EMG in both muscles remained in defined ranges, CP stimulation elicited the TA H-reflex and SOL RI. After collection of control data for 20 days, each rat was exposed for 50 days to up-conditioning (RIup mode) or down-conditioning (RIdown mode) in which food reward occurred if SOL RI evoked by CP stimulation was more (RIup mode) or less (RIdown mode) than a criterion. TA and SOL background EMG and TA M response remained stable. In every rat, RI conditioning was successful (i.e., change > or =20\% in the correct direction). In the RIup rats, final SOL RI averaged 171+/- 28\% (mean +/- SE) of control, and final TA H-reflex averaged 114 +/- 14\%. In the RIdown rats, final SOL RI averaged 37 +/- 13\% of control, and final TA H-reflex averaged 60 +/- 18\%. Final SOL RI and TA H-reflex sizes were significantly correlated. Thus like the SSR and the H-reflex, RI can be operantly conditioned; and conditioning one reflex can affect another reflex as well.},
	keywords = {Reflex, Stretch},
	issn = {0022-3077},
	doi = {10.1152/jn.00253.2006},
	url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16807351},
	author = {Xiang Yang Chen and Lu Chen and Yi Chen and Jonathan Wolpaw}
}
