{"title":"Improved motor imagery skills after repetitive passive somatosensory stimulation: a parallel-group, pre-registered study.","authors":"Kyoko Kusano, Masaaki Hayashi, Seitaro Iwama, Junichi Ushiba","doi":"10.3389/fncir.2024.1510324","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Motor-imagery-based Brain-Machine Interface (MI-BMI) has been established as an effective treatment for post-stroke hemiplegia. However, the need for long-term intervention can represent a significant burden on patients. Here, we demonstrate that motor imagery (MI) instructions for BMI training, when supplemented with somatosensory stimulation in addition to conventional verbal instructions, can help enhance MI capabilities of healthy participants.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Sixteen participants performed MI during scalp EEG signal acquisition before and after somatosensory stimulation to assess MI-induced cortical excitability, as measured using the event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR). The non-dominant left hand was subjected to neuromuscular electrical stimulation above the sensory threshold but below the motor threshold (St-NMES), along with passive movement stimulation using an exoskeleton. Participants were randomly divided into an intervention group, which received somatosensory stimulation, and a control group, which remained at rest without stimulation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The intervention group exhibited a significant increase in SMR-ERD compared to the control group, indicating that somatosensory stimulation contributed to improving MI ability.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>This study demonstrates that somatosensory stimulation, combining electrical and mechanical stimuli, can improve MI capability and enhance the excitability of the sensorimotor cortex in healthy individuals.</p>","PeriodicalId":12498,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Neural Circuits","volume":"18 ","pages":"1510324"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11747441/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Neural Circuits","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2024.1510324","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: Motor-imagery-based Brain-Machine Interface (MI-BMI) has been established as an effective treatment for post-stroke hemiplegia. However, the need for long-term intervention can represent a significant burden on patients. Here, we demonstrate that motor imagery (MI) instructions for BMI training, when supplemented with somatosensory stimulation in addition to conventional verbal instructions, can help enhance MI capabilities of healthy participants.
Methods: Sixteen participants performed MI during scalp EEG signal acquisition before and after somatosensory stimulation to assess MI-induced cortical excitability, as measured using the event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR). The non-dominant left hand was subjected to neuromuscular electrical stimulation above the sensory threshold but below the motor threshold (St-NMES), along with passive movement stimulation using an exoskeleton. Participants were randomly divided into an intervention group, which received somatosensory stimulation, and a control group, which remained at rest without stimulation.
Results: The intervention group exhibited a significant increase in SMR-ERD compared to the control group, indicating that somatosensory stimulation contributed to improving MI ability.
Discussion: This study demonstrates that somatosensory stimulation, combining electrical and mechanical stimuli, can improve MI capability and enhance the excitability of the sensorimotor cortex in healthy individuals.
期刊介绍：
Frontiers in Neural Circuits publishes rigorously peer-reviewed research on the emergent properties of neural circuits - the elementary modules of the brain. Specialty Chief Editors Takao K. Hensch and Edward Ruthazer at Harvard University and McGill University respectively, are supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international experts. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics and the public worldwide.
Frontiers in Neural Circuits launched in 2011 with great success and remains a "central watering hole" for research in neural circuits, serving the community worldwide to share data, ideas and inspiration. Articles revealing the anatomy, physiology, development or function of any neural circuitry in any species (from sponges to humans) are welcome. Our common thread seeks the computational strategies used by different circuits to link their structure with function (perceptual, motor, or internal), the general rules by which they operate, and how their particular designs lead to the emergence of complex properties and behaviors. Submissions focused on synaptic, cellular and connectivity principles in neural microcircuits using multidisciplinary approaches, especially newer molecular, developmental and genetic tools, are encouraged. Studies with an evolutionary perspective to better understand how circuit design and capabilities evolved to produce progressively more complex properties and behaviors are especially welcome. The journal is further interested in research revealing how plasticity shapes the structural and functional architecture of neural circuits.
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
