Peripherally induced EMG silent periods. Normal physiology and disorders of motor control

Periods of relative or absolute EMG suppression induced by peripheral stimulation have been described using a variety of experimental paradigms in normal subjects and in conditions of abnormal motor control. Peripherally induced silent periods represent complex inhibitory modulations of muscle activity and can be reproducibly evoked by cutaneous or mixed nerve electrical or mechanical stimuli. Features of the electromyographic suppression which most easily permit analysis include the degree of EMG inhibition, the latency and duration of the response, and the timing of the return of normal EMG activity following the stimulus, or S-X interval. When exteroceptive reflexes in craniocervical muscles are studied, alternating periods of EMG inhibition and facilitation have been described. Experiments designed to isolate the various contributants to EMG silence have not revealed a unitary electrophysiological basis for all of the silent period responses elicited by peripheral means. Thus, silent periods share a multifactorial origin that depends upon segmental spinal mechanisms which are heavily influenced by descending suprasegmental pathways. Because these mechanisms are affected in a variety of central disorders of motor control, study of peripherally induced silent periods may provide a window on the abnormal physiology of selected CNS diseases. Further study is required to elucidate the electrophysiology of peripherally induced silent periods, and to clarify the alterations in these negative motor phenomena that occur in central disorders of motor control.