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THE PLANTAR REFLEX - RePub

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TABLE VIII<br />

OCCURRENCE OF <strong>REFLEX</strong> ACTIVITY IN EHL AND EHB AFTER MECHANICAL<br />

STIMULATION<br />

EHL<br />

EHB<br />

Controls (n=9)<br />

Patients (n=7)<br />

0/9<br />

7 !7<br />

3/9<br />

l/7<br />

FHB<br />

A<br />

FHB<br />

B<br />

EHB<br />

EHB<br />

EHL<br />

l Jl's;eu~ '41';~'<br />

_jo.4mV<br />

EHL<br />

500msec<br />

FIGURE 5<br />

Reflex activity in FHB, EHB, and EHL after mechanical stimulation (arrows) o/ the plantar<br />

surface in a normcd subject (A) and in a p~ttient with a Babinski sign (B).<br />

Mechanical stimulation: effects in EHL and FHB<br />

The second half of this study concerns 15 patients and 40 control<br />

subjects. Recording from the EHB was abandoned, as activity in this<br />

muscle proved irrelevant to the occurrence of the Babinski sign. Attention<br />

was focused on activity in the two 'reins' of the plantar reflex, EHL and<br />

FHB. The effects of mechanical stimulation were studied first.<br />

In general, reflex activity appeared within 0.5 to 1 second after the<br />

beginning of stimulation. No efforts were made to determine exact reflex<br />

latencies after mechanical stimulation (Magladery et a!., 1958; Drobny et<br />

a!., 1974); such measurements are impeded by a variable delay between the<br />

74

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