Muscle reflexes in motion: how, what, and why?

Methods have been developed to study excitatory and inhibitory reflexes during human movements because dramatic task-dependent changes occur between different voluntary activities, and phase-dependent changes occur within cyclic movements. Interestingly, segmental reflexes are relatively unimportant for standing balance, although reflex responses are strong, yet they contribute substantially to force in several muscles during walking, when some reflex responses are weaker.