Modulation of Corticospinal Excitability and Muscle Synergies During Complex Locomotor Task in Individuals With and Without Cerebral Palsy: A TMS and EMG Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Introduction Studies employing transcranial magnetic stimulation and electromyography suggest that disrupted functional corticospinal connectivity significantly contributes to locomotor impairments. In individuals with Cerebral Palsy (CP), the corticospinal tract has therefore been identified as a potential target for improving gait control. However, it remains uncertain whether this pathway can be further activated given the damage caused by the brain lesion. Moreover, muscle synergies, a cooperative activation of groups of muscles, play an essential role in efficient and adaptive locomotion. Understanding and improving the modulation of these synergies could lead to better rehabilitation strategies for individuals with CP. The objective of this study was to assess whether a complex walking task promotes an increase in corticospinal excitability and a modulation of muscle synergies compared to a simple walking task in individuals with CP. Methods Fourteen individuals with CP and fourteen control subjects took part in this study. Each participant performed a simple walking task and a complex walking task (i.e., stepping onto virtual targets) at comfortable speed, in counterbalanced order. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the tibialis anterior muscle were induced using transcranial magnetic stimulation. Muscle synergies were extracted from surface electromyography signals acquired from six key lower-limb muscles during both tasks. Results MEPs were elicitable in 11/14 participants for the CP group and 14/14 for control group. In the complex task, MEPs increased by 59.4% in the CP group (MEP_simple task=1.89 [1.00-3.09] vs. MEP_complex task=2.70 [1.59-4.80] mV/s 2 ; p≤0.01) and 113.8% in the control group (MEP_simple task=1.95 [0.99-2.72] vs. MEP_complex task =2.91 [1.97-3.66] mV/s 2; p≤0.01). An increase in the number of synergies was observed during complex task in CP group (p=0.018). Conclusions These results suggest that performing a complex walking task allows to enhance the corticospinal excitability in both individuals with CP and control subjects. Moreover, CP individuals showed that either the number or the structure of synergies are modulated by the complex task, in comparison to control subjects. Longitudinal studies are recommended to assess the impact of the integration of complex tasks in gait rehabilitation interventions.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".