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Firing behavior of single motor neurons of the tibialis anterior in human walking as non-invasively revealed by HDsEMG decomposition

Hikaru Yokoyama, Naotsugu Kaneko, Atsushi Sasaki, Akira Saito, Kimitaka Nakazawa
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.03.486869
Hikaru Yokoyama
1Institue of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
2Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
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  • For correspondence: ft2249@go.tuat.ac.jp
Naotsugu Kaneko
2Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
3Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo 102-0083, Japan
4Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan
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Atsushi Sasaki
2Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
3Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo 102-0083, Japan
5Graduate School of Engineering Science, Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
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Akira Saito
6Center for Health and Sports Science, Kyushu Sangyo University, Fukuoka 813-8503, Japan
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Kimitaka Nakazawa
2Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
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Abstract

Investigation of the firing behavior of spinal motor neurons (MNs) provides essential neuromuscular control information because MNs form the “final common pathway” in motor control. The MNs activated during human infants’ leg movements and rodent locomotion, mainly controlled by the spinal central pattern generator (CPG), show highly synchronous firing. In addition to spinal CPGs, the cerebral cortex is involved in neuromuscular control during walking in human adults. Thus, MN firing behavior during adult walking is expected to be similar to that of infants and rodents and has some unique features. Recent technical advances allow non-invasive investigation of MN firing by high-density surface electromyogram (HDsEMG) decomposition. Therefore, we investigated the MN firing behavior of the tibialis anterior muscle during walking by HDsEMG decomposition. We found motor unit recruitment modulation compared with steady isometric contractions, doublet firings, and gait phase-specific firings during walking. We also found high MN synchronization during walking over a wide range of frequencies, probably including cortical and spinal CPG-related components. The amount of MN synchronization was modulated between the gait phases and motor tasks. These results suggest that the central nervous system, including the spinal CPG and cerebral cortex, flexibly controls MN firing to generate appropriate muscle force during human walking. In addition to revealing the neural control mechanisms of walking, our data demonstrate the feasibility of non-invasive investigation of MNs during walking, which will open new frontiers for the study of neuromuscular function in medical and exercise sciences.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted April 05, 2022.
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Firing behavior of single motor neurons of the tibialis anterior in human walking as non-invasively revealed by HDsEMG decomposition
Hikaru Yokoyama, Naotsugu Kaneko, Atsushi Sasaki, Akira Saito, Kimitaka Nakazawa
bioRxiv 2022.04.03.486869; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.03.486869
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Firing behavior of single motor neurons of the tibialis anterior in human walking as non-invasively revealed by HDsEMG decomposition
Hikaru Yokoyama, Naotsugu Kaneko, Atsushi Sasaki, Akira Saito, Kimitaka Nakazawa
bioRxiv 2022.04.03.486869; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.03.486869

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