Neuromechanics and Rehabilitation Technology Group, Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom.
J Neural Eng. 2021 Feb 11;18(1). doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/abcdbf.
Effective human motor augmentation should rely on biological signals that can be volitionally modulated without compromising natural motor control.We provided human subjects with real-time information on the power of two separate spectral bands of the spiking activity of motor neurons innervating the tibialis anterior muscle: the low-frequency band (<7 Hz), which is directly translated into natural force control, and the beta band (13-30 Hz), which is outside the dynamics of the neuromuscular system.Subjects could gain control over the powers in these two bands to navigate a cursor towards specific targets in a 2D space (experiment 1) and to up- and down-modulate beta activity while keeping steady force contractions (experiment 2).Results indicate that beta projections to the spinal motor neuron pool can be voluntarily controlled partially decoupled from natural muscle contractions and, therefore, they could be valid control signals for implementing effective human motor augmentation platforms.
有效的人类运动增强应该依赖于可以通过意志调节的生物信号，而不会损害自然运动控制。我们向人类受试者提供了关于支配胫骨前肌运动神经元的两个不同频率带（低频带(<7 Hz)，直接转化为自然力控制，以及β频带（13-30 Hz），其处于神经肌肉系统动力学之外）的放电活动的实时功率信息。受试者可以控制这两个频段的功率，以便在二维空间中引导光标指向特定目标（实验 1），并在保持稳定力收缩的同时上下调节β活动（实验 2）。结果表明，β对脊髓运动神经元池的投射可以通过意志进行部分控制，与自然肌肉收缩解耦，因此，它们可能是实现有效人类运动增强平台的有效控制信号。
