ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2019
Imbalanced Corticospinal and Reticulospinal Contributions to Spasticity in Humans with Spinal Cord Injury.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effects of Functional Electrical Stimulation Cycling on Muscle Spasticity in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review.Topics in spinal cord injury rehabilitation · 2025Pooled it
- Brain morphology changes after spinal cord injury: A voxel-based meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Resistance training tempo selectively modulates corticospinal and reticulospinal excitability in humans.The Journal of physiology · 2026Trial
- A Novel Wearable Device for Motor Recovery of Hand Function in Chronic Stroke Survivors.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2020Trial
- Spasticity and Abnormal Tone Regulation After Spinal Cord Injury: Mechanisms and the Effects of Neuromodulation.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Enhanced Reticulospinal Output in Subacute Spinal Cord Injury Patients with Spasticity.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Breathing-driven modulation of reticulospinal tract activity.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- A Streamlined 4-item Wolf Motor Function Test for Efficient Assessment of Upper Extremity Motor Function in Chronic Stroke Survivors.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2026Article
- Transient effects in corticospinal and reticulospinal tract excitability induced by motor skill and isometric resistance training.Brain research · 2026Article
- Reduced Post-Activation Depression in Humans with Spinal Cord Injury Is Not Related to Stretch Reflex Hyperexcitability.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Spinal cord stimulation for concurrent improvement of consciousness and spasticity following severe traumatic brain injury: a case study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Involvement of the reticulospinal tract in the pathogenesis of spasticity after stroke and spinal cord injury.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Excitation-inhibition imbalance in the motor control network: a key factor in post-stroke spasticity.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
- Effects of asymmetrical postural demands on sternocleidomastoid reflex in the startReact paradigm.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Comparison of the reticulospinal drive to lumbar erector spinae muscles in postural and voluntary tasks using the StartReact paradigm.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Article
- Mapping of spastic muscle activity after stroke: difference between passive stretch and active contraction.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Spasticity Predicts Motor Recovery for Patients with Subacute Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury.Annals of neurology · 2023Article
- Identifying the role of the reticulospinal tract for strength and motor recovery: A scoping review of nonhuman and human studies.Physiological reports · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Damage to the corticospinal and reticulospinal tract has been associated with spasticity in humans with upper motor neuron lesions. We hypothesized that these descending motor pathways distinctly contribute to the control of a spastic muscle in humans with incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). To test this hypothesis, we examined motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation over the leg representation of the primary motor cortex, maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs), and the StartReact response (shortening in reaction time evoked by a startling stimulus) in the quadriceps femoris muscle in male and females with and without incomplete SCI. A total of 66.7% of the SCI participants showed symptoms of spasticity, whereas the other 33.3% showed no or low levels of spasticity. We found that participants with spasticity had smaller MEPs and MVCs and larger StartReact compared with participants with no or low spasticity and control subjects. These results were consistently present in spastic subjects but not in the other populations. Clinical scores of spasticity were negatively correlated with MEP-max and MVC values and positively correlated with shortening in reaction time. These findings provide evidence for lesser corticospinal and larger reticulospinal influences to spastic muscles in humans with SCI and suggest that these imbalanced contributions are important for motor recovery.
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