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Is there such a thing as a spinal reflex connected to strain within the plantar fascia ?
I believe there might be with sudden loading of the fascia producing increased activity in the plantar intrinsics .

 

So an experimental set up might involve an apparatus similar to that shown in fig 2 in the paper listed below(1) .

The toes are raised and the foot and fascia are loaded via weight applied downwards on the knee in a seated individual (see figure 1 in paper 2 ,below ) .

A percussion hammer or the like is used to deliver a below to a particular area of the fascia from below and the reaction patterns of the intrinsics are measured.


Paper 1
Yawar, Ali, et al. "Contribution of the transverse arch to foot stiffness in humans." arXiv preprint arXiv:1706.04610 (2017).
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.04610.pdf

Paper 2
Intrinsic foot muscles have the capacity to control deformation of the ...


rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/93/20131188

 

So if strain within specific areas of the plantar fascia does produce , via spinal reflex , specific patterns of activation within the intrinsic foot muscles , so what ?

Well , orthotics may work in part not merely by supporting the foot but by changing , to advantage , strain within the plantar fascia and hence intrinsic activation patterns .

Might be worth looking at .

Related to the above is this thread :
The plantar fascia as a strain gauge