Sensory contributions to human movement and balance

感官对人类运动和平衡的贡献

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-04504
• 负责人: Inglis, JohnTimothy
• 金额: $ 2.84万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=687433
• 关键词: Sensory; contributions; human; movement; balance

The task of maintaining upright stance in the human, while seemingly a very simple thing to do, actually involves a complex sensorimotor control system that has to use and integrate sensory information to stay upright. This sensory information comes from three sensory sources: the inner ear (the vestibular system), the main receptors in our skin, joints and muscles (the somatosensory system), and the information coming from our eyes (the visual system). For this grant, two main concentration areas of research will be carried out. The first main concentration area of research will focus on the individual influences of, as well as the integration of, skin and muscle sensory information on the regulation of single spinal motorneurons in balancing human subjects. Over the past 6 years, we have developed extremely stable indwelling (in the muscle) wire recording electrodes, which can be painlessly inserted into any muscle using ultrasound monitoring for verification. Secondly, we have recently developed and piloted two novel techniques (noisey cutaneous vibration or noisey tendon vibration) with which we will investigate the role of different classes of skin receptors or muscle receptors using some computer-controlled and motorized mechanical systems to either selectively stimulate different regions of the skin of the foot-sole, or to stimulate the tendons of the muscles used in the control of standing balance. We plan to look at the interactive effects of both types of peripheral sensory input on human motorneurons while varying the balance task demands of the subject. The second main concentration area will be to investigate the behaviour of human muscle receptor and skin receptors directly using a research technique termed microneurography. Using a computer-controlled foot pedal, we will look at the response behavior of single muscle receptors or skin from the footsole of the lower limb, while subjects attempt to balance in a simulated environment (as if they were standing). Secondly, although very difficult, it is possible to record from the single axons from muscle receptors in the ankle muscles and cutaneous receptors from the foot-sole in quietly standing human subjects. Therefore, the final experiments will be carried out in standing human subjects while recording from single cutaneous and muscle receptors from the lower limb during different body loads and during different balancing tasks. The experiments in this grant proposal will provide us with insight into how key somatosensory inputs help modulate motorneurons and contribute to the control of normal standing balance.

人类保持直立姿势的任务看似非常简单，但实际上涉及一个复杂的感觉运动控制系统，必须使用和整合感觉信息才能保持直立。这些感觉信息来自三个感官来源：内耳(前庭系统)，我们皮肤、关节和肌肉的主要感受器(躯体感觉系统)，以及来自我们眼睛的信息(视觉系统)。对于这笔赠款，将进行两个主要集中领域的研究。第一个主要集中研究领域将集中在皮肤和肌肉感觉信息在调节单个脊髓运动神经元平衡人类受试者方面的个体影响以及整合。在过去的6年里，我们已经开发出非常稳定的留置(在肌肉中)导线记录电极，它可以无痛地插入任何肌肉中，使用超声波监测进行验证。其次，我们最近开发并试验了两种新技术(噪音皮肤振动或噪音肌腱振动)，通过这些技术，我们将使用一些计算机控制和电动机械系统来研究不同类别的皮肤感受器或肌肉感受器的作用，以选择性地刺激足底皮肤的不同区域，或刺激用于控制站立平衡的肌肉腱。我们计划观察这两种类型的外周感觉输入对人类运动神经元的交互影响，同时改变受试者的平衡任务需求。第二个主要集中领域将是直接使用一种名为显微神经学的研究技术来研究人类肌肉受体和皮肤受体的行为。使用计算机控制的脚踏板，当受试者试图在模拟环境中保持平衡(就像他们站着一样)时，我们将观察单个肌肉感受器或来自下肢脚底的皮肤的反应行为。其次，虽然非常困难，但在安静站立的受试者中，可以从脚踝肌肉的肌肉感受器和脚底的皮肤感受器的单个轴突进行记录。因此，最终的实验将在站立的人体受试者身上进行，同时记录不同身体负荷和不同平衡任务中来自下肢的单一皮肤和肌肉感受器。这项拨款计划中的实验将让我们深入了解关键的体感输入如何帮助调节运动神经元，并有助于控制正常的站立平衡。