Acute changes in soleus H-reflex facilitation and central motor conduction after targeted physical exercises

We tested the acute effect of exercises targeted simultaneously at cortical and brainstem circuits on neural transmission through corticobulbar connections. Corticobulbar pathways represent a potential target for rehabilitation after spinal cord injury (SCI), which tends to spare brainstem circuits to a greater degree than cortical circuits. To explore this concept, able-bodied volunteers (n = 20) underwent one session each of three exercises targeted at different nervous system components: treadmill walking (spinal locomotor circuits), isolated balance exercise (brainstem and other pathways), and multimodal balance plus skilled hand exercise (hand motor cortex and corticospinal tract). We found that short-interval soleus H-reflex facilitation increased after one session of balance and multimodal exercise by 13.2 ± 4.0% and 8.3 ± 4.7%, and slightly decreased by 1.9 ± 4.4% after treadmill exercise (p = 0.042 on ANOVA across exercise type). Increases in long-interval H-reflex facilitation were not significantly different between exercises. Both balance and multimodal exercise increased central motor conduction velocity by 4.3 ± 2.6% and 4.5 ± 2.8%, whereas velocity decreased by 4.3 ± 2.7% after treadmill exercise (p = 0.045 on ANOVA across exercise type). In conclusion, electrophysiological transmission between the motor cortex and spinal motor neurons in able-bodied subjects increased more following one session of balance exercise than treadmill exercise.