Neural population dynamics reveals disruption of spinal sensorimotor computations during electrical stimulation of sensory afferents

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.