We previously demonstrated that non-noxious electrical stimulation of the cutaneous nerve innervating the contralateral foot modified the excitability of the Hoffmann (H-) reflex in the soleus muscle (SOL) in a task-dependent manner during standing and walking in humans. To date, however, it remains unclear how the crossed conditioning effect on the SOL H-reflex from the contralateral foot is modified during the various phases of walking. We sought to answer this question in the present study. The SOL H-reflex was evoked in healthy volunteers by an electrical test stimulation (TS) of the right (ipsilateral) posterior tibial nerve at five different phases during treadmill walking (4 km/h). A non-noxious electrical stimulation was delivered to the superficial peroneal nerve of the left (contralateral) ankle ~100 ms before the TS as a conditioning stimulation (CS). This CS significantly suppressed the H-reflex amplitude during the early stance phase, whereas the same CS significantly facilitated the H-reflex amplitude during the late stance phase. The CS alone did not produce detectable changes in the full-wave rectified electromyogram of the SOL. This result indicates that presynaptic mechanisms driven by the activation of low-threshold cutaneous afferents in the contralateral foot play a role in regulating the transmission between the Ia terminal and motoneurons in a phase-dependent manner. The modulation pattern of the crossed conditioning effect on the SOL H-reflex may be functionally relevant for the left-right coordination of leg movements during bipedal walking.
Keywords: Cutaneous inputs; Interlimb coordination; Phase-dependency; Presynaptic inhibition; Walking.