Neurons coordinate their activity to produce an astonishing variety of motor behaviors. Our present understanding of motor control has grown rapidly thanks to new methods for recording and analyzing populations of many individual neurons over time. In contrast, current methods for recording the nervous system's actual motor output - the activation of muscle fibers by motor neurons - typically cannot detect the individual electrical events produced by muscle fibers during natural behaviors and scale poorly across species and muscle groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurons coordinate their activity to produce an astonishing variety of motor behaviors. Our present understanding of motor control has grown rapidly thanks to new methods for recording and analyzing populations of many individual neurons over time. In contrast, current methods for recording the nervous system's actual motor output - the activation of muscle fibers by motor neurons - typically cannot detect the individual electrical events produced by muscle fibers during natural behaviors and scale poorly across species and muscle groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
July 2022
High signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) electromyography (EMG) recordings are essential for identifying and analyzing single motor unit activity. While high-density electrodes allow for greater spatial resolution, the smaller electrode area translates to a higher impedance and lower SNR. In this study, we developed an implantable and flexible 3D microelectrode array (MEA) with low impedance that enables high-quality EMG recording.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIEEE Trans Compon Packaging Manuf Technol
February 2020
We present a system for recording electromyographic (EMG) signals from songbirds using hybrid polyimide-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) flexible multielectrode arrays (MEAs). 2-D electrodes with a diameter of 200, 125, and 50 μm and a center-to-center pitch of 300, 200, and 100 μm, respectively, were fabricated. 3-D MEAs were fabricated using a photoresist reflow process to obtain hemispherical domes utilized to form the 3-D electrodes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividual neurons can exhibit a wide range of activity, including spontaneous spiking, tonic spiking, bursting, or spike-frequency adaptation, and can also transition between these activity types. Manual identification of these activity patterns can be subjective and inconsistent. The extended hill-valley (EHV) analysis discriminates tonic spiking and bursts in a spike train by detecting fluctuations in a local, history-dependent analysis signal derived from the spike train.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTech Dig Int Electron Devices Meet
December 2018
This work presents fabrication and characterization of flexible three-dimensional (3D) multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) capable of high signal-to-noise (SNR) electromyogram (EMG) recordings from the expiratory muscle of a songbird. The fabrication utilizes a photoresist reflow process to obtain 3D structures to serve as the electrodes. A polyimide base with a PDMS top insulation was utilized to ensure flexibility and biocompatibility of the fabricated 3D MEA devices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuromechanical simulation was used to determine whether proposed thoracic circuit mechanisms for the control of leg elevation and depression in crayfish could account for the responses of an experimental hybrid neuromechanical preparation when the proprioceptive feedback loop was open and closed. The hybrid neuromechanical preparation consisted of a computational model of the fifth crayfish leg driven in real time by the experimentally recorded activity of the levator and depressor (Lev/Dep) nerves of an in vitro preparation of the crayfish thoracic nerve cord. Up and down movements of the model leg evoked by motor nerve activity released and stretched the model coxobasal chordotonal organ (CBCO); variations in the CBCO length were used to drive identical variations in the length of the live CBCO in the in vitro preparation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effect of proprioceptive feedback on the control of posture and locomotion was studied in the crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard). Sensory and motor nerves of an isolated crayfish thoracic nerve cord were connected to a computational neuromechanical model of the crayfish thorax and leg. Recorded levator (Lev) and depressor (Dep) nerve activity drove the model Lev and Dep muscles to move the leg up and down.
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