The discharge characteristics of motor units innervating functionally paralyzed muscles.

For individuals with motor complete spinal cord injury (SCI), previous works have shown that spared motor neurons below the injury level can still be voluntarily controlled. In this study, we investigated the behavior of these neurons after SCI by analyzing neural and spatial properties of individual motor units using high-density surface electromyography (HDsEMG) and ultrasound imaging. The dataset for this study is based on motor unit data from our previous work (Oliveira .

Unaltered Responses of Distal Motor Neurons to Non-Targeted Thoracic Spinal Cord Stimulation in Chronic Pain Patients.

Introduction: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) represents an established interventional pain therapeutic; however, the SCS effects of SCS waveforms on motor neuron recruitment of the lower limbs of chronic pain patients remain largely unknown.

Methods: We investigated these effects by performing isometric ankle-dorsal flexions at varying force levels under four SCS conditions: SCS Off (1 week), burst SCS (40 Hz), SCS Off (acute), and tonic SCS (130 Hz). Muscle activity was recorded via high-density surface electromyography (64-electrode grid) on the tibialis anterior muscle.

Learning a Hand Model from Dynamic Movements Using High-Density EMG and Convolutional Neural Networks.

Objective: Surface electromyography (sEMG) can sense the motor commands transmitted to the muscles. This work presents a deep learning method that can decode the electrophysiological activity of the forearm muscles into the movements of the human hand.

Methods: We have recorded the kinematics and kinetics of the hand during a wide range of grasps and individual digit movements that cover 22 degrees of freedom of the hand at slow (0.

The Impact of Burst Motor Cortex Stimulation on Cardiovascular Autonomic Modulation in Chronic Pain: A Feasibility Study for a New Approach to Objectively Monitor Therapeutic Effects.

Introduction: Chronic refractory pain of various origin occurs in 30-45% of pain patients, and a considerable proportion remains resistant to pharmacological and behavioral therapies, requiring adjunctive neurostimulation therapies. Chronic pain is known to stimulate sympathetic outflow, yet the impact of burst motor cortex stimulation (burstMCS) on objectifiable autonomic cardiovascular parameters in chronic pain remains largely unknown.

Methods: In three patients with chronic pain (2 facial pain/1 post-stroke pain), we compared pain intensity using a visual analog scale (VAS 1-10) and parameters of autonomic cardiovascular modulation at supine rest, during parasympathetic challenge with six cycles per minute of metronomic deep breathing, and during sympathetic challenge (active standing) at baseline and after 4 months of burstMCS compared to age-/gender-matched healthy controls.

Mental fatigue impairs physical performance but not the neural drive to the muscle: a preliminary analysis.

Mental fatigue (MF) does not only affect cognitive but also physical performance. This study aimed to explore the effects of MF on muscle endurance, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and motor units' activity. Ten healthy males participated in a randomised crossover study.

Deep Brain Stimulation for Chronic Facial Pain: An Individual Participant Data (IPD) Meta-Analysis.

Despite available, advanced pharmacological and behavioral therapies, refractory chronic facial pain of different origins still poses a therapeutic challenge. In circumstances where there is insufficient responsiveness to pharmacological/behavioral therapies, deep brain stimulation should be considered as a potential effective treatment option. We performed an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis including searches on PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library (2000-2022).

A Generalized Framework for the Study of Spinal Motor Neurons Controlling the Human Hand During Dynamic Movements.

The human hand possesses a large number of degrees of freedom. Hand dexterity is encoded by the discharge times of spinal motor units (MUs). Most of our knowledge on the neural control of movement is based on the discharge times of MUs during isometric contractions.

Neural decoding from surface high-density EMG signals: influence of anatomy and synchronization on the number of identified motor units.

High-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) allows the reliable identification of individual motor unit (MU) action potentials. Despite the accuracy in decomposition, there is a large variability in the number of identified MUs across individuals and exerted forces. Here we present a systematic investigation of the anatomical and neural factors that determine this variability.