Local cutaneous reflex has been suggested to promote placing and stability during rhythmic and locomotor activity (Zehr & Stein, 1999). Recently a role for cutaneous receptors in functional recovery after spinal cord injury has been identified in animal studies (Bouyer & Rossignol, 2003), and has been suggested to represent an important neural mechanism promoting rehabilitation (Pearson, 2003). The objective of this study was to identify the exact role of local cutaneous stimulation (plantar versus heel) on short and long-latency tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius medialis (GM) reflex activity during controlled rhythmic motor activity in healthy volunteers and in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients, to facilitate the development of future neurosensory rehabilitatory techniques. Healthy volunteers and SCI patients were instructed to perform ten ramp and hold contractions of the triceps surae in the dominant leg to reach 50% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), while electrically evoked modular cutaneous reflex electromyographic activity was measured at rest, during ankle extension and isometric contraction. Reflex activity was full wave rectified, after DC offset removal and the early (50-100 ms), late (100-200 ms) and total (50-200 ms) response was integrated (Spike2, Version 5.11, CED Ltd). Background EMG activity was subtracted from the reflex activity obtained during R, AE and IC. Integrated data was normalized: (reflex integral during AE/IC trial)/(reflex integral at R)-1 so that mean reflex activity during R represented as ‘0’. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test (SigmaStat, Version 3.1, Jandel Scientific). In general the total cutaneous reflex plantar-TA activity was significantly inhibited during ankle extension (-0.96±0.37; p<0.05) and isometric contraction (-1.06±0.32; p<0.01) at 50% MVC compared to the 'rest' phase (0.0±0.35). Analysis of the early (50-100 ms) plantar-TA and heel-GM reflex activity also indicated significant inhibition during both ankle extension and isometric contraction. During isometric extension the inhibition of the early plantar-GM reflex (-1.61±0.19) was significantly greater than the heel-GM reflex (0.82±0.15). Data from SCI patients will be presented as case reports. Measurement of phase-dependent cutaneous reflex modulation during ramp and hold rhythmic movement is a powerful and sensitive diagnostic technique for measuring sensorimotor function and will be instrumental in evaluating sensory neurorehabilitatory techniques in the future.