SOME DATA ON NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES INVOLVED IN PREPARATORY MOTOR ACTIVITY TO REACTION TIME PERFORMANCE

This study is concerned with an analysis of monosynaptic reflexes during the foreperiod in a simple reaction time situation. There is a dissociation in direction, time course and correlation with motor efficiency of the changes of excitability of the spinal structures controlling the muscles involved and not involved in the motor response respectively: the inhibition of reflexes observed in the involved muscle is more predictive for the performance level and more sensitive to the effect of probability of occurrence of the signal to respond to than the augmentation of reflexes observed in the non-involved muscle. The significance and the neurophysiological mechanism of this inhibition are discussed. © 1969.