Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles

The EMG-based neural control strategy provides technical support and innovative methodologies for the precise control and natural movement of hand prostheses. For enabling the prostheses to mimic the function of the human hand, it is essential to fully understand the principle of neuromuscular contr...

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Main Authors: Haoran Ren, Xinyu Jiang, Chenyun Dai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10877898/
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author Haoran Ren
Xinyu Jiang
Chenyun Dai
author_facet Haoran Ren
Xinyu Jiang
Chenyun Dai
author_sort Haoran Ren
collection DOAJ
description The EMG-based neural control strategy provides technical support and innovative methodologies for the precise control and natural movement of hand prostheses. For enabling the prostheses to mimic the function of the human hand, it is essential to fully understand the principle of neuromuscular control of human hand. However, we still have little knowledge regarding the functional significance of the proportion of common or independent neural input to the antagonist muscles in extensor and flexor during performing different tasks. Therefore, we used a discharge coherence analysis of motor unit (MU) spike trains to investigate different sources of common and independent input between extensor and flexor muscle groups in different hand gestures. 14 gestures were selected, including the extension of individual and multi fingers, as well as pinch finger tasks. The MU spike trains were obtained from the decomposition of high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) recordings using fastICA. The proportion of the independent neural input to extensor or flexor muscle groups was calculated by the ratio of residual coherence to total coherence. The results showed that the two muscle groups are comparable in independent proportion within each muscle group with relatively greater values in the extensor muscle. The degree of common input shared between the two muscle groups exhibited the highest level (around 35%) in the delta band (1-4Hz) compared to a very small proportion (<13%) in the other frequency bands. Additionally, a significant difference was observed in little finger extension and hand close tasks compared to other hand gestures. Overall, the varied proportions of independent neural input across hand gestures and among muscle groups illustrate the precise neural modulation involved in the co-contraction of the flexor and extensor muscles during flexible hand movements, as observed through the microscopic view of motoneurons.
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spelling doaj-art-ad12ea07601d454fb41a7ef20742b1fd2025-08-20T03:05:42ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1534-43201558-02102025-01-013375075910.1109/TNSRE.2025.353970010877898Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic MusclesHaoran Ren0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1848-9188Xinyu Jiang1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8518-1415Chenyun Dai2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3056-4339Department of Medical Information Engineering, School of Health and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, ChinaSchool of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K.School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, ChinaThe EMG-based neural control strategy provides technical support and innovative methodologies for the precise control and natural movement of hand prostheses. For enabling the prostheses to mimic the function of the human hand, it is essential to fully understand the principle of neuromuscular control of human hand. However, we still have little knowledge regarding the functional significance of the proportion of common or independent neural input to the antagonist muscles in extensor and flexor during performing different tasks. Therefore, we used a discharge coherence analysis of motor unit (MU) spike trains to investigate different sources of common and independent input between extensor and flexor muscle groups in different hand gestures. 14 gestures were selected, including the extension of individual and multi fingers, as well as pinch finger tasks. The MU spike trains were obtained from the decomposition of high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) recordings using fastICA. The proportion of the independent neural input to extensor or flexor muscle groups was calculated by the ratio of residual coherence to total coherence. The results showed that the two muscle groups are comparable in independent proportion within each muscle group with relatively greater values in the extensor muscle. The degree of common input shared between the two muscle groups exhibited the highest level (around 35%) in the delta band (1-4Hz) compared to a very small proportion (<13%) in the other frequency bands. Additionally, a significant difference was observed in little finger extension and hand close tasks compared to other hand gestures. Overall, the varied proportions of independent neural input across hand gestures and among muscle groups illustrate the precise neural modulation involved in the co-contraction of the flexor and extensor muscles during flexible hand movements, as observed through the microscopic view of motoneurons.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10877898/Prosthetic controlhand gesturemotor unit synchronizationhigh-density surface electromyographycoherence analysismuscle synergies
spellingShingle Haoran Ren
Xinyu Jiang
Chenyun Dai
Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Prosthetic control
hand gesture
motor unit synchronization
high-density surface electromyography
coherence analysis
muscle synergies
title Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles
title_full Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles
title_fullStr Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles
title_short Exploring Control Mechanism of Motoneuron Pools for the Forearm Antagonist Synergistic Muscles
title_sort exploring control mechanism of motoneuron pools for the forearm antagonist synergistic muscles
topic Prosthetic control
hand gesture
motor unit synchronization
high-density surface electromyography
coherence analysis
muscle synergies
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10877898/
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