Spasticity, Decerebrate Rigidity and the Clasp-Knife Phenomenon: An Experimental Study in the Cat

Burke, David; Knowles, L.; Andrews, Colin J.; Ashby, Peter

doi:10.1093/brain/95.1.31

Cited by 75 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…Non-noxious stimuli associated with isometric contraction (Cleland et al 1982) or passive muscle stretch, particularly at longer muscle lengths , have been shown to generate motor behaviors quantitatively similar to flexion reflexes. Such multijoint reflexes after single joint perturbations are the basis for the well-characterized clasp-knife reflex (Burke et al 1972;Rymer et al 1979) and are thought to be elicited primarily by load-and stretch-sensitive, group III-IV, and nonspindle group II, muscular-free nerve endings .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Muscle Afferents to Prolonged Flexion Withdrawal Reflexes in Human Spinal Cord Injury

Hornby¹,

Tysseling²,

Benz³

et al. 2004

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Hornby, T. G., V. M. Tysseling-Mattiace, E. N. Benz, and B. D. Schmit. Contribution of muscle afferents to prolonged flexion withdrawal reflexes in human spinal cord injury. J Neurophysiol 92: 3375-3384, 2004. First published July 14, 2004 doi:10.1152/jn.00152. 2004. The contribution of force-sensitive muscular afferents to prolonged flexion withdrawal reflexes, or flexor spasms, after human spinal cord injury (SCI) was investigated. In three separate experimental conditions, flexion reflexes were triggered in subjects with SCI using trains of electrocutaneous stimuli delivered at the foot and lower leg and compared with reflexes elicited via intramuscular (IM) electrical stimuli. In the first experiment, flexion reflexes were elicited using IM stimuli to the tibialis anterior (TA) in the majority of subjects tested. The ratio of peak isometric ankle to hip torques during IM-triggered reflexes were proportionally similar to those evoked by electrocutaneous foot or shank stimulation, although the latency to onset and peak flexion torques were significantly longer with IM stimulation. In the second experiments, the amplitude and frequency of IM TA stimulation were varied to alter the stimulus-induced muscle torque. Peak ankle and hip torques generated during the flexion reflex responses were correlated to a greater extent with stimulus-induced muscle torques as compared with the modulated stimulus parameters. In the third experimental series, IM stimuli delivered to the gastrocnemius (GS) elicited flexion reflexes in approximately half of the subjects tested. The combined data indicate a potentially prominent role of the stimulus-induced muscle contraction to the magnitude and latency of flexor reflex behaviors after IM TA stimulation. Results after IM GS stimulation indicate multi-joint flexion reflexes can also be elicited, although to a lesser extent than IM TA stimulation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Muscle Afferents to Prolonged Flexion Withdrawal Reflexes in Human Spinal Cord Injury

Hornby¹,

Tysseling²,

Benz³

et al. 2004

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…The clasp-knife reflex is characterized by an abrupt decline in muscle force that occurs when a spastic limb is moved beyond a certain joint angle. There is a common ground between lengthening reaction in animal preparations (Burke et al, 1972b;Rymer et al, 1979) and clasp-knife reflex in human spasticity in that the essential feature of both phenomena is the sudden release of the resistance due to continuous stretch of the elongated muscle, hence also referred to as "stretch-induced inhibition" (Rymer et al, 1979). The physiological framework previously established or explored in the context of the lengthening reaction or stretch-induced inhibition has recently been investigated in parkinsonian rigidity (Xia & Rymer, 2004;Xia et al, 2011).…”

Section: Lengthening Reaction or Stretch-induced Inhibitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological and Biomechanical Analyses of Rigidity in Parkinson's Disease

Xia¹

2011

Etiology and Pathophysiology of Parkinson's Disease

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“…Many of the changes previously in spinalized animals have been put down to the interruption of tonic influences running in the dorsolateral funiculi (Grillner et al 1970;Burke et al 1972) and mediated principally by the dorsal reticulospinal system which originates in the caudal pons and medulla (Holmqvist & Lundberg, 1961). Engberg et al (1968a, b) have argued that fibres originating from these two areas have different effects on segmental pathways served by group Ib and flexor reflex afferents, but since they are intermingled in the spinal cord they were presumably both destroyed by the dorsal lesion.…”

Section: Spinalized Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings suggest that the preparations studied here are not accurate models of human spasticity. Of the features of human spasticity, only the clasp-knife reflex (Burke et al 1972;Rymer et al 1979) and disrupted motoneurone firing patterns (Powers & Rymer, 1988) have been reported in decerebrate cats with dorsal hemisection of the spinal cord. The decerebrate preparation with chronic lesions has not been studied as extensively, but the present results imply that it too differs markedly from the pattern expected in a model of spasticity.…”

Section: Spasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of lesions on autogenetic inhibition in the decerebrate cat.

Iles¹,

Jack²,

Kullmann³

et al. 1989

The Journal of Physiology

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SUMMARY1. The effects of spinal and brain lesions on autogenetic inhibition from contraction receptors were studied in the decerebrate cat. Inhibitory feedback gain was estimated by measuring the effect of tension perturbations on reflex contractions of the soleus muscle. Tendon vibration was used to clamp the firing rate of primary spindle afferents, to prevent spindle unloading from disfacilitating the reflex contraction. In addition, secondary spindle afferents could be selectively excited by stimulating fusimotor fibres during muscle vibration.2. Following an acute contralateral or bilateral dorsal transection of the spinal cord at L3, the vibration reflex tension fell by between 50 and 74 % in three decerebrate animals. This was accompanied by a variable increase in inhibitory feedback, ranging between 180 and 360 %.3. In two animals, selective stimulation of fusimotor fibres supplying soleus muscle was without effect in the presence of muscle vibration both before and after the spinal lesion. In the third animal, a small and variable reduction in tension could be obtained only after the lesion, implying that an inhibitory pathway from homonymous secondary spindle afferents to a-motoneurones was released.4. In a separate series of experiments, contralateral cerebral lesions were made 2-12 months prior to the acute inhibitory feedback measurement. Inhibitory feedback gain was increased, on average twofold in decerebrate animals with chronic cerebral lesions, when compared to control decerebrate animals. 5. Selective stimulation of fusimotor fibres to excite spindle secondary afferents was uniformly without effect in decerebrate animals with chronic cerebral lesions. In one animal spinal transection had only a minor effect on extensor tone and on inhibitory feedback gain, in contrast to the control decerebrate cats.6. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the use of animals with spinal and supraspinal lesions as models of spasticity.

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Spasticity, Decerebrate Rigidity and the Clasp-Knife Phenomenon: An Experimental Study in the Cat

Cited by 75 publications

References 0 publications

Contribution of Muscle Afferents to Prolonged Flexion Withdrawal Reflexes in Human Spinal Cord Injury

Contribution of Muscle Afferents to Prolonged Flexion Withdrawal Reflexes in Human Spinal Cord Injury

Physiological and Biomechanical Analyses of Rigidity in Parkinson's Disease

The effects of lesions on autogenetic inhibition in the decerebrate cat.

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