| Abstract: | Dynamic aspects of stretch and unloading reflexes were investigated in the hindlimb extensor muscles of decerebrate cats. A complex transformation of non-linear effects inherent in the dynamics of the deafferented muscle was seen to occur under reflex control without hysteris (underlying non-linear static qualities of the muscle) being suppressed. Hysteresis of stretch reflex is responsible for uncertainty in muscle length equilibrium level — a factor in the origin of the movement — as well as the close connection between muscle stiffness and coordinates of the point of change in movement direction. The functional significance of non-linear aspects of the stretch reflex system is discussed.A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 589–597, September–October, 1989. |
