Blind identification of the spinal cord output in humans with high-density electrode arrays implanted in muscles.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36383647.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abo5040 and PMC identifier 9668292.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Invasive electromyography opened a new window to explore motoneuron behavior in vivo. However, the technique is limited by the small fraction of active motoneurons that can be concurrently detected, precluding a population analysis in natural tasks. Here, we developed a high-density intramuscular electrode for in vivo human recordings along with a fully automatic methodology that could detect the discharges of action potentials of up to 67 concurrently active motoneurons with 99% accuracy. These data revealed that motoneurons of the same pool receive common synaptic input at frequencies up to 75 Hz and that late-recruited motoneurons inhibit the discharges of those recruited earlier. These results constitute an important step in the population coding analysis of the human motor system in vivo.