Variation in Throughput from Single Motor Cortex Neurons to Muscles

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的长期目标是了解影响从初级运动皮层中的单个神经元到驱动肌肉的运动神经元的吞吐量的因素。初级运动皮质通过其皮质脊髓投射在控制身体运动中起主要作用。这种控制大部分是通过从单个运动皮层神经元到脊髓运动神经元池的直接连接来实现的。这些连接的吞吐量可以通过从肌肉记录的整流肌电图活动的尖峰触发平均值来评估。通过在自然和新颖的自主运动行为期间同时记录多个运动皮层神经元和多个肌肉的活动，并分析它们的尖峰触发的平均效应，本申请提出确定自主行为期间神经元放电速率和正在进行的肌电图活动的变化是否产生从神经元到肌肉的吞吐量幅度的系统变化。由于运动皮层神经元的放电率和其靶肌肉的肌电图活动通常是相关的，因此还将研究M1神经元与其靶肌肉的神经元分离的程度。对运动皮层如何控制肌肉移动身体的更好理解将导致改善诊断，治疗和康复，以恢复受多种神经系统疾病影响的患者的功能，包括中风，肌萎缩性侧索硬化症，多发性硬化症，创伤性脑或脊髓损伤和脑瘫。

Description (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of the present project is to understand factors that influence throughput from single neurons in the primary motor cortex to the motoneurons that drive muscles. The primary motor cortex, through its corticospinal projection, plays a major role in controlling movements of the body. Much of this control is achieved via direct connections from single motor cortex neurons to pools of spinal motoneurons. The throughput of these connections can be assessed in spike-triggered averages of rectified electromyographic activity recorded from muscles. By recording the activity of multiple motor cortex neurons and multiple muscles simultaneously during both natural and novel voluntary motor behaviors, and analyzing their spike-triggered average effects, the present application proposes to determine whether changes in neuron firing rate and ongoing electromyographic activity during voluntary behaviors produce systematic variation in the amplitude of throughput from the neuron to the muscle. Because the firing rate of motor cortex neurons and the electromyographic activity of their target muscles often are correlated, the extent to which M1 neurons can be dissociated from that of their target muscles also will be investigated. Improved understanding of how the motor cortex controls muscles to move the body will lead to improved diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation to functional recovery for patients affected by numerous neurological diseases including stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain or spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy.