Abstract
Muscles synergies, or motor modules, are thought to be the building blocks of motor control in vertebrates. In human walking, experimental finding demonstrated that 4 to 5 synergies can explain most of the variability of electromyographic activity of lower limb muscles. How is modular control affected in neurologically injured patients is still object of investigation. In this paper we present preliminary experimental findings on the modular control of walking in three incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Results show that the impulsive and synergistic control of muscles is preserved in these patients, and that the basic features are in general similar to the healthy modular control, as described in the literature. Relevant differences in timing recruitment of muscle synergies are associated to large deviations in spatiotemporal parameters, supporting the functional meaning of muscle synergies.
* This research is part of the HYPER project “Hybrid Neuroprosthetic and Neurorobotic Devices for Functional Compensation and Rehabilitation of Motor Disorders” (Ref. CSD2009-00067) funded by CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010, Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Wirz, M., Zörner, B., Rupp, R., Dietz, V.: Outcome after incomplete spinal cord injury: central cord versus Brown-Sequard syndrome. Spinal Cord 48(5), 407–414 (2010)
Chang, H.A., Chuang, T.Y., Lee, S.J., Liao, S.F., Lee, H.C., Shih, Y.H., Cheng, H.: Temporal differences in relative phasing of gait initiation and first step length in patients with cervical and lumbosacral spinal cord injuries. Spinal Cord 42(5), 281–289 (2004)
Burns, S.P., Golding, D.G., Rolle, W.A., Graziani, V., Ditunno, J.: Recovery of ambulation in motor-incomplete tetraplegia. Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 78(11), 1169–1172 (1997)
Wang, P., Low, K.H., McGregor, A.H., Tow, A.: Detection of abnormal muscle activations during walking following spinal cord injury (SCI). Res. Dev. Disabil. 34(4), 1226–1235 (2013)
Lacquaniti, F., Ivanenko, Y.P., Zago, M.: Patterned control of human locomotion. J. Physiol. 590(Pt. 10), 2189–2199 (2012)
Fox, E.J., Tester, N.J., Kautz, S.A., Howland, D.R., Clark, D.J., Garvan, C., Behrman, A.L.: Modular control of varied locomotor tasks in children with incomplete spinal cord injuries. J. Neurophysiol. 110(6), 1415–1425 (2013)
Bizzi, E., Cheung, V.C.K., d’Avella, A., Saltiel, P., Tresch, M.: Combining modules for movement. Brain Res. Rev. 57(1), 125–133 (2008)
Ivanenko, Y.P., Grasso, R., Zago, M., Molinari, M., Scivoletto, G., Castellano, V., Macellari, V., Lacquaniti, F.: Temporal components of the motor patterns expressed by the human spinal cord reflect foot kinematics. J. Neurophysiol. 90(5), 3555–3565 (2003)
Bowden, M.G., Clark, D.J., Kautz, S.A.: Evaluation of abnormal synergy patterns poststroke: relationship of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment to hemiparetic locomotion. Neurorehabil. Neural Repair 24(4), 328–337 (2010)
Cruz, T.H., Dhaher, Y.Y.: Impaired lower limb muscle synergies post-stroke. In: Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc., vol. 2009, pp. 3956–3959 (January 2009)
Lacquaniti, F., Ivanenko, Y.P., D’Avella, A., Zelik, K.E., Zago, M.: Evolutionary and developmental modules. Front. Comput. Neurosci. 7, 61 (2013)
Ting, L., Safavynia, S.A., Torres-Oviedo, G.: Muscle Synergies: Implications for Clinical Evaluation and Rehabilitation of Movement. Top Spinal Cord Inj. Rehabil. 17(1), 16–24 (2011)
Kadaba, M.P., Ramarkrishnan, H.K., Wooter, M.E., Gainey, J., Gorton, C., Cochran, G.: Repeatability of kinematics, kinetic, and electromyograhic data in normal adult gait. J. Orthop. Res. 7, 849–860 (1989)
Cram, J.R.: Introduction to surface electromyography, 2nd edn. Jones and Barlett Publishers, Boston (1998)
Clark, D.J., Ting, L.H., Zajac, F.E., Neptune, R.R., Kautz, S.A.: Merging of healthy motor modules predicts reduced locomotor performance and muscle coordination complexity post-stroke. J. Neurophysiol. 103(2), 844–857 (2010)
Lee, D.D., Seung, H.S.: Algorithms for Non-negative Matrix Factorization. Adv. Neural Inf. Process. Syst. (1), 556–562 (2001)
Hug, F.: Can muscle coordination be precisely studied by surface electromyography? J. Electromyogr. Kinesiol. 21(1), 1–12 (2011)
Gizzi, L., Nielsen, J.F., Felici, F., Ivanenko, Y.P., Farina, D.: Impulses of activation but not motor modules are preserved in the locomotion of subacute stroke patients. Journal of Neurophysiology 106(1), 202–210 (2011)
Neptune, R.R., Clark, D.J., Kautz, S.A.: Modular control of human walking: a simulation study. Journal of Biomechanics 42(9), 1282–1287 (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pérez-Nombela, S. et al. (2014). Modular Control of Gait in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Preliminary Results. In: Jensen, W., Andersen, O., Akay, M. (eds) Replace, Repair, Restore, Relieve – Bridging Clinical and Engineering Solutions in Neurorehabilitation. Biosystems & Biorobotics, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08072-7_87
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08072-7_87
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08071-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08072-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)