{"doi":"10.3389/fnsys.2023.1199079","title":"A sensory signal related to left-right symmetry modulates intra- and interlimb cutaneous reflexes during locomotion in intact cats","abstract":"Introduction: During locomotion, cutaneous reflexes play an essential role in rapidly responding to an external perturbation, for example, to prevent a fall when the foot contacts an obstacle. In cats and humans, cutaneous reflexes involve all four limbs and are task- and phase modulated to generate functionally appropriate whole-body responses. Methods: To assess task-dependent modulation of cutaneous interlimb reflexes, we electrically stimulated the superficial radial or superficial peroneal nerves in adult cats and recorded muscle activity in the four limbs during tied-belt (equal left-right speeds) and split-belt (different left-right speeds) locomotion. Results: We show that the pattern of intra- and interlimb cutaneous reflexes in fore- and hindlimbs muscles and their phase-dependent modulation were conserved during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion. Short-latency cutaneous reflex responses to muscles of the stimulated limb were more likely to be evoked and phase-modulated when compared to muscles in the other limbs. In some muscles, the degree of reflex modulation was significantly reduced during split-belt locomotion compared to tied-belt conditions. Split-belt locomotion increased the step-by-step variability of left-right symmetry, particularly spatially. Discussion: These results suggest that sensory signals related to left-right symmetry reduce cutaneous reflex modulation, potentially to avoid destabilizing an unstable pattern.","journal":"Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience","year":2023,"id":336324,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":19,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9549,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":502035,"name":"Charly G. Lecomte","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":900458,"name":"Angèle N. Merlet","orcid":"0000-0002-7597-119X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":475045,"name":"Johannie Audet","orcid":"0000-0001-8519-3144","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476068,"name":"Jonathan Harnie","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501099,"name":"Ilya A. Rybak","orcid":"0000-0003-3461-349X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":475048,"name":"Boris I. Prilutsky","orcid":"0000-0003-0499-3890","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":475049,"name":"Alain Frigon","orcid":"0000-0002-9259-2706","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":901148,"name":"Stephen Mari","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":125,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:10:17.243221Z","pmid":"37360774","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}