Operant Conditioning of Spinal Reflexes for Motor Rehabilitation after CNS Damage

Spinal reflex behaviors can be changed through operant conditioning, in which modification of a behavior is brought about by the consequence of that behavior. Spinal reflex conditioning can be used to change a spinal reflex pathway so as to ameliorate movement disabilities due to central nervous system (CNS) damage. This chapter demonstrates that operant conditioning can increase or decrease the soleus H-reflex in neurologically intact people, and investigates whether down-conditioning can reduce abnormal soleus H-reflex excitability in people with incomplete SCI and can thereby alleviate spastic gait. Finally, operant conditioning protocols that focus on modifying EEG activity over sensorimotor cortex might conceivably provide an additional approach to improving cortical control of motor function.