Solopova I A, Selionov V A, Zhvansky D S, Gurfinkel V S, Ivanenko Y
Laboratory of Neurobiology of Motor Control, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia;
Biomedical Engineering Department, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; and.
J Neurophysiol. 2016 Feb 1;115(2):1018-30. doi: 10.1152/jn.00897.2015. Epub 2015 Dec 16.
The coordination between arms and legs during human locomotion shares many features with that in quadrupeds, yet there is limited evidence for the central pattern generator for the upper limbs in humans. Here we investigated whether different types of tonic stimulation, previously used for eliciting stepping-like leg movements, may evoke nonvoluntary rhythmic arm movements. Twenty healthy subjects participated in this study. The subject was lying on the side, the trunk was fixed, and all four limbs were suspended in a gravity neutral position, allowing unrestricted low-friction limb movements in the horizontal plane. The results showed that peripheral sensory stimulation (continuous muscle vibration) and central tonic activation (postcontraction state of neuronal networks following a long-lasting isometric voluntary effort, Kohnstamm phenomenon) could evoke nonvoluntary rhythmic arm movements in most subjects. In ∼40% of subjects, tonic stimulation elicited nonvoluntary rhythmic arm movements together with rhythmic movements of suspended legs. The fact that not all participants exhibited nonvoluntary limb oscillations may reflect interindividual differences in responsiveness of spinal pattern generation circuitry to its activation. The occurrence and the characteristics of induced movements highlight the rhythmogenesis capacity of cervical neuronal circuitries, complementing the growing body of work on the quadrupedal nature of human gait.
人类行走过程中手臂与腿部之间的协调与四足动物有许多共同特征，然而，关于人类上肢中央模式发生器的证据有限。在此，我们研究了先前用于引发类似踏步腿部运动的不同类型的强直刺激，是否会诱发非自愿性的节律性手臂运动。20名健康受试者参与了本研究。受试者侧卧，躯干固定，四肢均悬挂于重力平衡位置，使四肢能在水平面上进行无限制的低摩擦运动。结果显示，外周感觉刺激（持续肌肉振动）和中枢强直激活（长时间等长自愿用力后神经元网络的收缩后状态，科恩斯塔姆现象）可在大多数受试者中诱发非自愿性的节律性手臂运动。在约40%的受试者中，强直刺激诱发了非自愿性的节律性手臂运动以及悬挂腿部的节律性运动。并非所有参与者都表现出非自愿性肢体振荡这一事实，可能反映出脊髓模式生成回路对其激活的反应性存在个体差异。诱发运动的发生及特征突出了颈部神经元回路的节律生成能力，补充了关于人类步态四足特性的越来越多的研究工作。
