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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