Abstract
While neurostimulation technologies are rapidly approaching clinical applications for sensorimotor disorders, the impact of electrical stimulation on network dynamics is still unknown. Given the high degree of shared processing in neural structures, it is critical to understand if neurostimulation affects functions that are related to, but not targeted by the intervention. Here we approached this question by studying the effects of electrical stimulation of cutaneous afferents on unrelated processing of proprioceptive inputs. We recorded intra-spinal neural activity in four monkeys while generating proprioceptive inputs from the radial nerve. We then applied continuous stimulation to the radial nerve cutaneous branch and quantified the impact of the stimulation on spinal processing of proprioceptive inputs via neural population dynamics. Proprioceptive pulses consistently produced neural trajectories that were disrupted by concurrent cutaneous stimulation. This disruption propagated to the somatosensory cortex, suggesting that electrical stimulation can perturb natural information processing across the neural axis.
Competing Interest Statement
MC and SR hold patents in relation to peripheral nerve stimulation. SR is the founder of SensArs, a company developing neural interfaces for the peripheral nervous system. MC is the founder of Reach Neuro, a company developing spinal cord stimulation technologies for stroke. All other authors declare they have no competing interests.
Footnotes
To expand the available evidence and facilitate the generalization of the observed results, we replicated the experimental setup in a new animal. Additionally, we introduced novel methods for processing the neural data and quantifying the observed effects, thereby augmenting the comprehensiveness of our study.
