ACCURATE DECODING OF THE SPINAL CORD OUTPUT IN HUMANS WITH IMPLANTED HIGH-DENSITY ELECTRODE ARRAYS

Abstract

Invasive electromyography opened a new window to explore motoneuron behaviour in vivo. However, the technique is limited by the small fraction of active motoneurons that can be concurrently detected, precluding a population analysis in natural tasks. Here, we developed a high-density intramuscular electrode for in vivo human recordings along with a fully automatic methodology that could detect the discharges of action potentials of up to 67 concurrently active motoneurons with 99% accuracy. These data revealed that motoneurons of the same pool receive common synaptic input at frequencies up to 75 Hz and that late recruited motoneurons inhibit the discharges of those recruited earlier. These results constitute an important step in the population coding analysis of the human motor system in vivo.