Oh J, Steele AG, Varghese B, Martin CA, Scheffler MS, Markley RL, Lo YK, Sayenko DG. Cervical transcutaneous spinal stimulation for spinal motor mapping.
iScience 2022;
25:105037. [PMID:
36147963 PMCID:
PMC9485062 DOI:
10.1016/j.isci.2022.105037]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Revised: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 08/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcutaneous spinal stimulation (TSS) is a promising approach to restore upper-limb (UL) functions after spinal cord injury (SCI) in humans. We sought to demonstrate the selectivity of recruitment of individual UL motor pools during cervical TSS using different electrode placements. We demonstrated that TSS delivered over the rostrocaudal and mediolateral axes of the cervical spine resulted in a preferential activation of proximal, distal, and ipsilateral UL muscles. This was revealed by changes in motor threshold intensity, maximum amplitude, and the amount of post-activation depression of the evoked responses. We propose that an arrangement of electrodes targeting specific UL motor pools may result in superior efficacy, restoring more diverse motor activities after neurological injuries and disorders, including severe SCI.
Cervical spinal motor maps are created by transcutaneous spinal stimulation
Upper limb muscle-specific stimulation coincides with segmental motor pool locations
Lateral stimulation can be advantageous depending on rostral or caudal sites
Site-specific stimulation can help determine therapeutic outcomes after SCI
Collapse