THE EFFECT OF TREADMILL GAIT TRAINING ON LOW-FREQUENCY DEPRESSION OF THE SOLEUS H-REFLEX - COMPARISON OF A SPINAL-CORD INJURED MAN TO NORMAL SUBJECTS

H-Reflex recruitment curves were obtained at 0.1 and 1 Hz in the right soleus of an incomplete SCI man before and after training and on 12 n eurologically normal individuals. Low frequency depression (LFD) was c alculated by the formula: 1-(H-wave amplitude at 1 H-2/0.1 Hz) x 100. Training consisted of treadmill walking at the speed matching his over ground fast walking. The subject trained for 30 min every other day fo r 10 days under supervision and then continued three times a week for 4 months at a health club. Maximum H/M ratio of the right soleus (78%) was greater than that of the normals (67%) and did not change followi ng training (79%). The mean LFD of the SCI subject was 24% prior to tr aining compared to 42% for the normal subjects. Following training, LF D increased to 35%. In addition, the reflex threshold appears to have increased following training, This was accompanied by 47 and 45% incre ases in the subject's self selected and fast gait velocities, respecti vely. We conclude that training adaptations enabled the SCI subject to increase his gait velocity due to an improved ability to gate periphe ral afferent feedback during gait. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Scie nce Ireland Ltd.