Interpretation of muscle spindle afferent nerve response to passive muscle stretch recorded with thin-film longitudinal intrafascicular electrodes

IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2009 Oct;17(5):445-53. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2009.2032286. Epub 2009 Sep 22.

Abstract

In this study, we explored the feasibility of estimating muscle length in passive conditions by interpreting nerve responses from muscle spindle afferents recorded with thin-film longitudinal intrafascicular electrodes. Afferent muscle spindle response to passive stretch was recorded in ten acute rabbit experiments. A newly proposed first-order model of muscle spindle response to passive sinusoidal muscle stretch manages to capture the relationship between afferent neural firing rate and muscle length. We demonstrate that the model can be used to track random motion trajectories with bandwidth from 0.1 to 1 Hz over a range of 4 mm with a muscle length estimation error of 0.3 mm (1.4 degrees of joint angle). When estimation is performed using four-channel ENG there is a 50% reduction in estimate variation, compared to using single-channel recordings.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials / physiology*
  • Afferent Pathways / physiology*
  • Animals
  • Electrodes, Implanted*
  • Muscle Spindles / innervation*
  • Muscle Spindles / physiology*
  • Muscle, Skeletal / physiology*
  • Physical Stimulation / methods*
  • Rabbits