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。初级运动皮层，通过其皮质-脊髓投射，在控制身体运动中起着重要作用。这种控制大部分是通过单个运动皮层神经元与脊髓运动神经元池的直接连接实现的。这些连接的吞吐量可以通过从肌肉记录的校正肌电图活动的峰值触发平均值来评估。通过记录多个运动皮层神经元和多个肌肉在自然和新的自主运动行为期间的活动，并分析它们的峰值触发的平均效应，本应用旨在确定在自主行为期间神经元放电率的变化和持续的肌电活动是否会产生从神经元到肌肉的通量振幅的系统性变化。由于运动皮层神经元的放电速率与其目标肌肉的肌电图活动通常是相关的，因此M1神经元与目标肌肉的分离程度也将被研究。更好地了解运动皮层如何控制肌肉来移动身体，将有助于改善诊断、治疗和康复，以使受多种神经系统疾病影响的患者功能恢复，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.