Voluntary contraction enhances spinal reciprocal inhibition induced by patterned electrical stimulation in patients with stroke.

Background: Reciprocal inhibition (RI) may be important for recovering locomotion after stroke. Patterned electrical stimulation (PES) can modulate RI in a manner that could be enhanced by voluntary muscle contraction (VC).

Objective: To investigate whether VC enhances the PES-induced spinal RI in patients with stroke.