RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cortical control of locomotor muscle activity through muscle synergies in humans: a neural decoding study
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 413567
DO 10.1101/413567
A1 Hikaru Yokoyama
A1 Naotsugu Kaneko
A1 Tetsuya Ogawa
A1 Noritaka Kawashima
A1 Katsumi Watanabe
A1 Kimitaka Nakazawa
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/11/413567.abstract
AB Walking movements are orchestrated by the activation of a large number of muscles. The control of numerous muscles during walking is believed to be simplified by flexible activation of groups of muscles called muscle synergies. Although significant corticomuscular connectivity during walking has been reported, the level at which the cortex controls locomotor muscle activity (i.e., muscle synergy or individual muscle level) remains unclear. Here, we examined cortical involvement in muscle control during walking by brain decoding of the activation of muscle synergies and individual muscles from electroencephalographic (EEG) signals using linear decoder models. First, we demonstrated that activation of locomotor muscle synergies was decoded from slow cortical waves with significant accuracy. In addition, we found that decoding accuracy for muscle synergy activation was greater than that for individual muscle activation and that decoding of individual muscle activation was based on muscle synergy-related cortical information. Taken together, these results provide indirect evidence that the cerebral cortex hierarchically controls multiple muscles through a few muscle synergies during walking. Our findings extend the current understanding of the role of the cortex in muscular control during walking and could accelerate the development of effective brain-machine interfaces for people with locomotor disabilities.