Evoking Cutaneous Reflexes During Human Walking I. A Step-by-Step Methodological Approach

This paper, the first in a two-part series focused on measuring cutaneous reflexes during human walking, provides a detailed step-by-step methodology for reliably eliciting cutaneous reflexes during human treadmill walking. The procedure addresses the technical challenges of eliciting reflexes from cutaneous nerves in a consistent and reproducible manner throughout the gait cycle. Building on approaches used in previous studies, we integrate practical guidance on equipment setup, electrode placement, configuration of a foot-sensitive resistor for quantifying gait cycle parameters, and reflex measurements to enable successful implementation across laboratories with varying levels of expertise. The custom development and use of a pseudorandomized stimulation approach is a novel feature of our broader methodology and is described in detail in the second paper. The present protocol focuses on the experimental setup required to obtain high-quality reflex measurements during walking, thereby providing the basis for advanced stimulation paradigms in human sensorimotor research. © 2025 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol: Evoking cutaneous reflexes during human walking using a pseudorandomized approach.