Difference Between Autogenic and Reciprocal Inhibition

The key difference between autogenic and reciprocal inhibition is that autogenic inhibition is the ability of a muscle to relax when it experiences a stretch or increased tension while reciprocal inhibition is the relaxation of muscles on one side of a joint to accommodate contraction on the other side of that joint.

Muscles stretch and relax. In order to maintain muscle contractions, there are mechanoreceptors present on the muscle cells that send information to our central nervous system. Muscle spindle and Golgi tendon organ (GTO) are two sensory organs of the stretch reflex. Muscles contract in response to muscles stretching. GTO inhibits muscle activation in order to decreases the tension of muscle and tendons.

Autogenic and reciprocal inhibition are two types of reflex relaxations that protect muscles from damages and injuries. Autogenic inhibition relaxation is the muscle’s ability to relax while it is experiencing increased tension. It is done by the GTO. In contrast, reciprocal inhibition relaxation is the relaxation of the opposite muscle when the agonist muscle experiences a stretch.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Autogenic Inhibition
3. What is Reciprocal Inhibition
4. Similarities Between Autogenic and Reciprocal Inhibition
5. Side by Side Comparison – Autogenic vs Reciprocal Inhibition in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is Autogenic Inhibition?

Autogenic inhibition or autogenic inhibition relaxation is the ability of a muscle to relax while it experiences a stretch or increased tension. Here, both stretch and relaxation occur in the same muscle. Due to autogenic inhibition, a reduction in excitability of a contracting or stretched muscle takes place.  GTO within the same muscle senses the excess tension in the muscle and sends the information of stretching to the CNS. Then it carries out the relaxation of the same muscle in order to protect the muscle and tendon from the damage. Therefore, it is a protective mechanism to protect the muscle from extreme tension and also to avoid muscle damages.

What is Reciprocal Inhibition?

Before discussing reciprocal inhibition relaxation, let’s look at agonist muscle and antagonist muscle, the two terms related to this inhibition. Agonist muscle is a muscle that causes a movement to occur through its own action, while antagonist muscle is the opposite muscle that relaxes in order to prevent damages to the agonist muscle due to extreme tension.

Coming back to reciprocal inhibition, the reciprocal inhibition relaxation is the relaxation of muscles on one side of a joint to accommodate contraction on the other side of that joint. Therefore, it involves the relaxation of antagonist muscle followed by stretching of the agonist muscle. In other words, in reciprocal inhibition, increased tension of the agonist muscle causes the reflex relaxation of the antagonist or opposite muscle.

Similar to autogenic inhibition, reciprocal inhibition also protects muscle from injuries. In reciprocal inhibition, muscle spindles are important.

What are the Similarities Between Autogenic and Reciprocal Inhibition?

• Autogenic inhibition and reciprocal inhibition take place when certain muscles are inhibited from contracting due to the activation of the Golgi tendon organ (GTO) and muscle spindles.
• Both actions prevent muscle damages.

What is the Difference Between Autogenic and Reciprocal Inhibition?

Autogenic inhibition relaxation is the ability of a muscle to remain relaxed while it experiences a stretch. On the other hand, reciprocal inhibition relaxation is the relaxation of the opposite muscle when the agonist muscle experiences a stretch. Thus, this is the key difference between autogenic and reciprocal inhibition. Autogenic inhibition takes place in the same muscle while reciprocal inhibition takes place in the opposite muscle. Autogenic inhibition is mainly recognized by the GTO, while reciprocal inhibition is mainly recognized by the muscle spindles. So, this is also a significant difference between autogenic and reciprocal inhibition.

Moreover, another important difference between autogenic and reciprocal inhibition is that the autogenic inhibition is mainly responsible for preventing muscle and tendon undergoing extreme tension, while reciprocal inhibition mainly protects muscle from injuries.

Summary – Autogenic vs Reciprocal Inhibition

Autogenic and reciprocal inhibition are two types of reflex relaxations. In autogenic inhibition, a muscle relaxes while it experiences increased tension. It is done mainly by the sensory organ GTO. As a result of autogenic inhibition, the muscle gets rid of the extreme tension and damage. In contrast, reciprocal inhibition is the relaxation of the opposite muscle when the agonist muscle is experiencing a stretch. This also protects the muscles from injuries. So, this is the summary of the difference between autogenic and reciprocal inhibition.

Reference:

1. “Muscle Energy Technique.” Physiopedia, Available here.
2. “Autogenic Inhibition versus Reciprocal Inhibition Techniques on Spastic Children.” Oatext, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Agonist en antagonist” By Davin at Dutch Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia