Coherent modulations of human motor unit discharges during quasi-sinusoidal isometric muscle contractions (original) (raw)
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Neuromuscular mechanisms and neural strategies in the control of time-varying muscle contractions
Journal of Neurophysiology, 2013
The organization of the neural input to motoneurons that underlies time-varying muscle force is assumed to depend on muscle transfer characteristics and neural strategies or control modes utilizing sensory signals. We jointly addressed these interlinked, but previously studied individually and partially, issues for sinusoidal (range 0.5–5.0 Hz) force-tracking contractions of a human finger muscle. Using spectral and correlation analyses of target signal, force signal, and motor unit (MU) discharges, we studied 1) patterns of such discharges, allowing inferences on the motoneuronal input; 2) transformation of MU population activity (EMG) into quasi-sinusoidal force; and 3) relation of force oscillation to target, carrying information on the input's organization. A broad view of force control mechanisms and strategies emerged. Specifically, synchronized MU and EMG modulations, reflecting a frequency-modulated motoneuronal input, accompanied the force variations. Gain and delay dro...
Journal of Neurophysiology, 2008
In quasi-sinusoidal (0.5–3.0 Hz) voluntary muscle contractions, we studied the 6- to 10-Hz motor unit (MU) firing synchrony and muscle force oscillation with emphasis on their neural substrate and relation to rhythmical motor control. Our analyses were performed on data from 121 contractions of a finger muscle in 24 human subjects. They demonstrate that coherent 6- to 10-Hz components of MU discharges coexist with carrier components and coherent modulation components underlying the voluntary force variations. The 6- to 10-Hz synchrony has the frequency of the tremor synchrony in steady contractions and is also widespread and in-phase. Its strength ranges from very small to very large (MU/MU coherence >0.50) among contractions; moreover, it is not related to the contraction parameters, in accord with the notion of a distinct 6- to 10-Hz synaptic input to the MUs. Unlike the coherent MU modulations and the voluntary force variations, the in-phase 6- to 10-Hz MU components are suppr...
Behavioural Brain Research, 2005
The purpose of this study was to examine the modulation of the motor neuronal pool as a function of task dynamics. Specifically, we investigated the effects of task frequency on the single motor unit discharge pattern, electromyogram (EMG) activity and effector force output. Myoelectric activity and effector force were recorded while young adults isometrically abducted their first dorsal interosseus at five sinusoidal targets (0.5 Hz, 1 Hz, 2 Hz, 3 Hz and 4 Hz) and at two force levels (5% and 25% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC)). Individual motor unit spike trains were isolated from the EMG. Auto-spectral and coherence analyses were performed on the force output, EMG and motor unit spike trains. The frequency of maximal coherence between the EMG and force output closely corresponded to the target frequency in all conditions. There was a broadband distribution of power with multiple peaks in the EMG and motor unit spectrums in the 0.5 Hz and 1 Hz targets. However, the EMG and motor unit spectrums in the 2 Hz, 3 Hz and 4 Hz targets were characterized by an increasingly narrower band of activity with one dominant peak that closely corresponded to the target. There is high coherence between EMG output and target force frequency, but the relative contribution of the fast and slow neuromuscular bands are differentially influenced by the task frequency. The rhythmical organization of neuromuscular output in the 0.5 Hz task is relatively broadband and similar to that shown previously for constant level force output. The frequency structure of neuromuscular organization becomes increasingly more narrowband as the frequency of the target increases (2-4 Hz). The modulation of the motor neuronal pool is adaptive and depends on the relative contribution of feedback and feedforward control processes, which are driven by the task demands. (J.J. Sosnoff). output. However, there are established frequency profiles in constant level isometric limb force production (e.g., ) as there are in motor unit activity and finger tremor . These findings are consistent with the general perspective that the output from the central nervous system to the musculature is rhythmical .
Correlated changes in the firing rate of human motor units during voluntary contraction
Experimental Brain Research, 1996
Spike trains of long duration were recorded from concurrently active pairs of motor units in the human masseter and tibialis anterior muscles. An innovative analysis technique was used to investigate functional coupling between the motoneurons by plotting the discharge frequency of one motor unit with respect to the firing times of the other (peri-spike frequencygram). Conventional cross-correlograms of discharge times were also constructed for each pair to detect synchronous firing and to compare them with the peri-spike frequencygrams (PSFs). The PSFs were examined with the hypothesis that, if the net common input of the two motoneurons was excitatory, the firing frequency of both units should increase around the time of the synchronous discharge of both units (i.e., time zero in the cross-correlogram). Conversely, if the net common input was inhibitory, the firing frequency of both units should fall around time zero. In 24 out of 37 masseter pairs tested, either one (n=20) or both (n=4) units of the pair displayed a statistically significant increase (P<0.001) in the firing frequency around time zero of the PSE No significant decrease in the discharge frequency was ever detected in any of the units of the 37 pairs tested. The probability of occurrence of a significant increase in firing rate was found to be significantly higher X2=5, P<0.05) in the pairs with significant synchronous firing (13 out of 15) than in the pairs without (11 out of 22). Moreover, the percentage increase in the discharge frequency was found to be significantly higher in the pairs with significant synchronous activity (1.4%) than in those without (0.74%). In 24 out of 56 tibialis anterior pairs tested, either one (n=19) or both (n=5) units of the pairs displayed significant changes (P<0.001) in discharge frequency
Synchronization of motor-unit firings in several human muscles
Journal of Neurophysiology, 1993
1. Synchronization of concurrently active motor-unit firings was studied in six human muscles performing isometric constant-force contractions at 30% of the maximal level. The myoelectric signal was detected with a quadrifilar needle electrode and was decomposed into its constituent motor-unit action-potential trains with the Precision Decomposition technique, whose accuracy has been proven previously. 2. Synchronization was considered as the tendency of two motor units to fire at fixed time intervals with respect to each other more often than would be expected if the motor units fired independently. A rigorous statistical technique was used to measure the presence of peaks in the cross-interval histogram of pairs of motor-unit action-potential trains. The location of the center of peak as well as their width and amplitude were measured. A synch index was developed to measure the percentage of firings that were synchronized. The percentage of concurrently active motor-unit pairs tha...
Cortical Control of Human Motoneuron Firing During Isometric Contraction
Journal of Neurophysiology, 1997
Salenius, Stephan, Karin Portin, Matti Kajola, Riitta Salmelin, and Riitta Hari. Cortical control of human motoneuron firing during isometric contraction. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 3401–3405, 1997. We recorded whole scalp magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals simultaneously with the surface electromyogram from upper and lower limb muscles of six healthy right-handed adults during voluntary isometric contraction. The 15- to 33-Hz MEG signals, originating from the anterior bank of the central sulcus, i.e., the primary motor cortex, were coherent with motor unit firing in all subjects and for all muscles. The coherent cortical rhythms originated in the hand motor area for upper limb muscles (1st dorsal interosseus, extensor indicis proprius, and biceps brachii) and close to the foot area for lower limb muscles (flexor hallucis brevis). The sites of origin corresponding to different upper limb muscles did not differ significantly. The cortical signals preceded motor unit firing by 12–53 ms. ...
Journal of neurophysiology, 2005
Discharge rate variability influences the variation in force fluctuations across the working range of a hand muscle. . The goal of this study was to improve the ability of a motor unit model to predict experimentally measured force variability across a wide range of forces. Motor unit discharge characteristics were obtained from 38 motor units of the first dorsal interosseus muscle. Motor unit discharges were recorded in separate isometric contractions that ranged from 4 to 85% of the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force above recruitment threshold. High-threshold motor units exhibited both greater minimal and peak discharge rates compared with low-threshold units (P Ͻ 0.01). Minimal discharge rate increased from 7 to 23 pps, and peak discharge rate increased from 14 to 38 pps with an increase in recruitment threshold. Relative discharge rate variability (CV) decreased exponentially for each motor unit from an average of 30 to 13% as index finger force increased above recruitment threshold. In separate experiments, force variability was assessed at eight force levels from 2 to 95% MVC. The CV for force decreased from 4.9 to 1.4% as force increased from 2 to 15% MVC (P Ͻ 0.01) and remained constant at higher forces (1.2-1.9%; P ϭ 0.14). When the motor unit model was revised using these experimental findings, discharge rate variability was the critical factor that resulted in no significant difference between simulated and experimental force variability (P ϭ 0.22) at all force levels. These results support the hypothesis that discharge rate variability is a major determinant of the trends in isometric force variability across the working range of a muscle. DW. The discharge of impulses in motor nerve fibres.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 1999
The firing behavior of motor units (MUs) of the first dorsal interrosseus muscle of the hand was examined during both constant-force and varying-force (sinusoidal or broadband random variations) isometric contractions in healthy adults. The emphasis was on the analysis of MU synchrony with an efficient and sensitive method. In static contractions, widespread and strong MU firing correlations, with the MUs in phase, were present at the frequency of muscle tremor, when the tremor was regular (narrowband) and large. MU correlations could also exist in contractions where the tremor of a subject was irregular (broadband) overall, but they were generally weak. These correlations were at the frequency of the subject's regular tremor, and the corresponding distinct tremor component was sometimes discernible within the broad tremor-band. In contrast, the MUs did not show any such correlations in the case of purely irregular and small tremor. On the basis of these observations, it is conc...
Motor Unit Contractions Evoked by Stimulation with Variable Interpulse Intervals
Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, 2012
During natural contractions motor units (MUs) are activated by variable frequency discharge patterns of motoneurones. The aim of this review was (1) to discuss differences between tetanic contractions developed at constant and random frequencies of pulses; (2) to show results of mathematical decomposition of these tetani into series of twitch-shaped responses to individual pulses; (3) to indicate that it is possible to predict the tetanic force of a MU with high accuracy by using regression equations derived on a basis of the relationships between the parameters of the decomposed twitches and the force level at which the next response begins.