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Effect of muscle contraction strength on gating of somatosensory magnetic fields

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Abstract

Afferent somatosensory information is modulated before the afferent input arrives at the primary somatosensory cortex during voluntary movement. The aim of the present study was to clarify the effect of muscular contraction strength on somatosensory evoked fields (SEFs) during voluntary movement. In addition, we examined the differences in gating between innervated and non-innervated muscle during contraction. We investigated the changes in gating effect by muscular contraction strength and innervated and non-innervated muscles in human using 306-channel magnetoencephalography. SEFs were recorded following the right median nerve stimulation in a resting condition and during isometric muscular contractions from 10 % electromyographic activity (EMG), 20 and 30 % EMG of the right extensor indicis muscle and abductor pollicis brevis muscle. Our results showed that the equivalent current dipole (ECD) strength for P35m decreased with increasing strength of muscular contraction of the right abductor pollicis brevis muscle. However, changes were observed only at 30 % EMG contraction level of the right extensor indicis muscle, which was not innervated by the median nerve. There were no significant changes in the peak latencies and ECD locations of each component in all conditions. The ECD strength did not differ significantly for N20m and P60m regardless of the strength of muscular contraction and innervation. Therefore, we suggest that the gating of SEF waveforms following peripheral nerve stimulation was affected by the strength of muscular contraction and innervation of the contracting muscle.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 25282162 and 16H03207 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Tohoku Fukushi University, 1-8-1 Kunimi, Aoba-ku, Sendai City, Miyagi, 981-8522, Japan

    Kazuhiro Sugawara

  2. Institute for Human Movement and Medical Sciences, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, 1398 Shimami-cho, Kita-ku, Niigata City, 9503198, Japan

    Hideaki Onishi, Koya Yamashiro, Sho Kojima, Shota Miyaguchi, Atsuhiro Tsubaki, Hikari Kirimoto & Hiroyuki Tamaki

  3. Department of Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan

    Shinichi Kotan

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Nishi-Niigata Chuo National Hospital, 14-1-1 Masago, Nishi-ku, Niigata, 950-2085, Japan

    Hiroshi Shirozu & Shigeki Kameyama

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  1. Kazuhiro Sugawara
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  2. Hideaki Onishi
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  3. Koya Yamashiro
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  9. Hiroyuki Tamaki
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  11. Shigeki Kameyama
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Correspondence to Kazuhiro Sugawara.

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Sugawara, K., Onishi, H., Yamashiro, K. et al. Effect of muscle contraction strength on gating of somatosensory magnetic fields. Exp Brain Res 234, 3389–3398 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4736-z

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