Muscle history, fusimotor activity and the human stretch reflex

1. The previous history of contraction and length changes of a muscle influences the size of the stretch reflex and H reflex. Here we ask, is this dependence due to changes in mechanical properties of extrafusal fibres, intrafusal fibres of spindles, or both? 2. The soleus muscle of human subjects was conditioned using either a voluntary contraction or a contraction evoked by low-strength electrical stimulation, in the range 0-25 % of maximum. Following conditioning, reflexes were increased by more than twofold above the no-contraction value by a voluntary contraction of 5 % of maximum, or more, but not by electrical stimulation which presumably did not contract the intrafusal fibres of spindles. 3. When the muscle was conditioned with a contraction at a length shorter than the test length, rather than at the test length, a depressing effect on reflexes was attributed to both the burst of impulses generated in spindles when the muscle was stretched back to the test length and to a reduced stretch sensitivity of muscle spindles. 4. The experiments demonstrate the importance of keeping the muscle and its spindles in a defined mechanical state when measuring reflexes. They also point to the powerful facilitating influences of conditioning muscle contractions provided they recruit the intrafusal fibres of spindles.