Journal
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
Volume 18, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/abcdbf
Keywords
human augmentation; motor neurons; beta oscillations; real-time decomposition
Categories
Funding
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Neurotechnology and Health
- European Research Council (Synergy Grant Natural BionicS) [810346]
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The study demonstrated that subjects could control cursor movement and muscle contraction force by modulating the power of neural signal frequencies, showing that beta band activity could be effectively controlled during these processes.
Objective. Effective human motor augmentation should rely on biological signals that can be volitionally modulated without compromising natural motor control. Approach. 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. Main Results. 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). Significance. 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.
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