Online Tracking of the Phase Difference Between Neural Drives to Antagonist Muscle Pairs in Essential Tremor Patients.

Transcutaneous electrical stimulation has been applied in tremor suppression applications. Out-of-phase stimulation strategies applied above or below motor threshold result in a significant attenuation of pathological tremor. For stimulation to be properly timed, the varying phase relationship between agonist-antagonist muscle activity during tremor needs to be accurately estimated in real-time.

Voluntary and tremorogenic inputs to motor neuron pools of agonist/antagonist muscles in essential tremor patients.

Pathological tremor is an oscillation of body parts at 3-10 Hz, determined by the output of spinal motor neurons (MNs), which receive synaptic inputs from supraspinal centers and muscle afferents. The behavior of spinal MNs during tremor is not well understood, especially in relation to the activation of the multiple muscles involved. Recent studies on patients with essential tremor have shown that antagonist MN pools receive shared input at the tremor frequency.