Neural population dynamics reveals disruption of spinal sensorimotor computations during electrical stimulation of sensory afferents
Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Abstract: While neurostimulation technologies are rapidly approaching clinical applications for sensorimotor disorders, the impact of electrical stimulation on network dynamics is still unknown. Given the high degree of shared processing in neural structures, it is critical to understand if neurostimulation affects functions that are related to, but not targeted by the intervention. Here we approached this question by studying the effects of electrical stimulation of cutaneous afferents on unrelated processing of proprioceptive inputs. We recorded intra-spinal neural activity in four monkeys while generating proprioceptive inputs from the radial nerve. We then applied continuous stimulation to the radial nerve cutaneous branch and quantified the impact of the stimulation on spinal processing of proprioceptive inputs via neural population dynamics. Proprioceptive pulses consistently produced neural trajectories that were disrupted by concurrent cutaneous stimulation. This disruption propagated to the somatosensory cortex, suggesting that electrical stimulation can perturb natural information processing across the neural axis.
Institutions: Institut Mihajlo Pupin, University of Belgrade, University of Pittsburgh, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg University, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution Research Institute of Medical Primatology, ETH Zurich, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3216726973