Mushahwar V K, Horch K W
Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA.
IEEE Trans Rehabil Eng. 2000 Mar;8(1):22-9. doi: 10.1109/86.830945.
The goal of this study was to determine the feasibility of producing graded muscle contraction in individual muscles or muscle groups by electrically stimulating motor neurons in the lumbo-sacral spinal cord. Recruitment curves were obtained for quadriceps, tibialis anterior and triceps surae/plantaris by stimulating their activation pools in the ventral horn of the feline spinal cord. Mean twitch times-to-peak for quadriceps, tibialis anterior and triceps surae/plantaris were 33.0, 41.0, and 36.0 ms, respectively. Twitch duration as a function of stimulus strength demonstrated a mixed motor unit recruitment order, distinctively different from the inverse recruitment order exhibited by conventional methods of electrical stimulation of peripheral nerve. The recruitment curve slopes (expressed as a percentage of maximum force per nanocurrent of delivered charge) were shallow: 7.9 for quadriceps, 2.6 for tibialis anterior and 8.5 for triceps surae/plantaris. These results show that graded control of force in individual muscles or muscle groups can be obtained through spinal cord stimulation, and suggest that spinal cord stimulation could be used for functional neuromuscular stimulation applications.
本研究的目的是确定通过电刺激腰骶部脊髓中的运动神经元来在单个肌肉或肌肉群中产生分级肌肉收缩的可行性。通过刺激猫脊髓腹角中的股四头肌、胫前肌和小腿三头肌/跖肌的激活池，获得了募集曲线。股四头肌、胫前肌和小腿三头肌/跖肌的平均抽搐峰值时间分别为33.0、41.0和36.0毫秒。抽搐持续时间作为刺激强度的函数呈现出混合运动单位募集顺序，与传统外周神经电刺激方法所呈现的反向募集顺序明显不同。募集曲线斜率（表示为每纳库仑输送电荷的最大力的百分比）较浅：股四头肌为7.9，胫前肌为2.6，小腿三头肌/跖肌为8.5。这些结果表明，通过脊髓刺激可以实现对单个肌肉或肌肉群力量的分级控制，并表明脊髓刺激可用于功能性神经肌肉刺激应用。
