Muscle recruitment through electrical stimulation of the lumbo-sacral spinal cord

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Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Engineering
Department Bioengineering
Creator Horch, Kenneth W.
Other Author Mushahwar, V. K.
Title Muscle recruitment through electrical stimulation of the lumbo-sacral spinal cord
Date 2000
Description The goal of this study was to determine the feasibility of producing graded muscle contraction in individual muscles or muscle groups by electrically stimulating motor neurons in the lumbo-sacral spinal cord. Recruitment curves were obtained for quadriceps, tibialis anterior and triceps surae/plantaris by stimulating their activation pools in the ventral horn of the feline spinal cord. Mean twitch times-to-peak for quadriceps, tibialis anterior and triceps surae/plantaris were 33.0, 41.0, and 36.0 ms, respectively. Twitch duration as a function of stimulus strength demonstrated a mixed motor unit recruitment order, distinctively different from the inverse recruitment order exhibited by conventional methods of electrical stimulation of peripheral nerve. The recruitment curve slopes (expressed as a percentage of maximum force per nanocurrent of delivered charge) were shallow: 7.9 for quadriceps, 2.6 for tibialis anterior and 8.5 for triceps surae/plantaris. These results show that graded control of force in individual muscles or muscle groups can be obtained through spinal cord stimulation, and suggest that spinal cord stimulation could be used for functional neuromuscular stimulation applications.
Type Text
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Volume 8
Issue 1
Subject Functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS); Motor pools, Muscle recruitment, Spinal cord stimulation
Subject MESH Electric Stimulation; Motor Neurons; Spinal Cord
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Horch. K. W., & Mushahwar, V. K. (2000). Muscle recruitment through electrical stimulation of the lumbo-sacral spinal cord. IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation Engineering, 8(1).
Rights Management (c) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 333,489v Bytes
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Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6z32h1n