Rare phenomena of central rhythm and pattern generation in a case of complete spinal cord injury

Karen Minassian, Aymeric Bayart, Peter Lackner, Heinrich Binder, Brigitta Freundl and Ursula S. Hofstoetter ()
Additional contact information
Karen Minassian: Medical University of Vienna
Aymeric Bayart: Medical University of Vienna
Peter Lackner: Neurological Center, Clinic Penzing
Heinrich Binder: Neurological Center, Clinic Penzing
Brigitta Freundl: Neurological Center, Clinic Penzing
Ursula S. Hofstoetter: Medical University of Vienna

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Lumbar central pattern generators (CPGs) control the basic rhythm and coordinate muscle activation underlying hindlimb locomotion in quadrupedal mammals. The existence and function of CPGs in humans have remained controversial. Here, we investigated a case of a male individual with complete thoracic spinal cord injury who presented with a rare form of self-sustained rhythmic spinal myoclonus in the legs and rhythmic activities induced by epidural electrical stimulation (EES). Analysis of muscle activation patterns suggested that the myoclonus tapped into spinal circuits that generate muscle spasms, rather than reflecting locomotor CPG activity as previously thought. The EES-induced patterns were fundamentally different in that they included flexor-extensor and left-right alternations, hallmarks of locomotor CPGs, and showed spontaneous errors in rhythmicity. These motor deletions, with preserved cycle frequency and period when rhythmic activity resumed, were previously reported only in animal studies and suggest a separation between rhythm generation and pattern formation. Spinal myoclonus and the EES-induced activity demonstrate that the human lumbar spinal cord contains distinct mechanisms for generating rhythmic multi-muscle patterns.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39034-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-39034-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39034-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().