Contralateral cutaneous reflex modulation during gait in individuals with and without chronic ankle instability.
Gait Posture
; 113: 490-497, 2024 Sep.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39146860
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Chronic ankle instability (CAI), a common seqeula to ankle injury is characterized by a variety of sensorimotor deficits extending beyond the previously injured limb. Cutaneous reflexes have been identified as a potential contributor to these functional limitations with recent studies identifying alterations in reflex patterns following sural nerve stimulation among those with CAI. To date, no studies have measured cutaneous reflexes of the unaffected limb in this population, therefore, the objective of this study was to measure contralateral cutaneous reflexes during gait in individuals with unilateral CAI and healthy controls.METHODS:
Muscle activity of 6 lower limb muscles was measured in nineteen participants while receiving random, non-noxious sural nerve stimulations during a walking task.RESULTS:
Control reflex patterns were generally well-aligned with previous literature while CAI patterns varied from controls in several muscles throughout the gait cycle. Namely, a lack of lateral gastrocnemius facilitation during late stance and medial gastrocnemius inhibition at midstance. Additionally, a lack of significant BF facilitation throughout contralateral swing was noted. These results indicate reflex alterations extend beyond the affected limb in those with unilateral CAI indicating changes at the spinal level following lateral ankle sprains (LAS). Considering the symptom variability in CAI, the lack of significant reflexes exhibited by the CAI group may be due to increased variability in motor output between subjects or between stimulation trials.CONCLUSIONS:
These findings highlight the importance of identifying reflex alterations arising from LAS and subsequently treating these limitations through rehabilitation targeting systemic neural pathways rather than local deficits.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Reflex
/
Muscle, Skeletal
/
Electromyography
/
Gait
/
Joint Instability
/
Ankle Joint
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Gait Posture
Journal subject:
ORTOPEDIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
United kingdom