Cabral, H.V., Inglis, J.G., Pourreza, E. et al. (5 more authors) (2025) A single low-dimensional neural component of spinal motor neuron activity explains force generation across repetitive isometric tasks. iScience, 28 (10). 113483. ISSN: 2589-0042
Abstract
Low-dimensional control is thought to underlie spinal motor neuron activity, with low-frequency oscillations in common synaptic inputs serving as the primary determinant of muscle force production. Here, we used principal-component analysis and factor analysis to investigate the role of low-dimensional motor unit components in force production during repetitive isometric tasks with similar force profiles. In both individual and synergistic human muscles, the first motor unit component explained most of the variance in smoothed discharge rates and showed higher correlations with force oscillations than the second component. Additionally, the first component, but not the second, remained highly consistent across trials. A non-linear network-information framework further confirmed these findings, revealing high motor unit network density in the first component across all muscles. These results suggest that during isometric contractions, force oscillations are primarily driven by a single dominant shared synaptic input to spinal motor neuron activity.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Bioengineering; neuroscience; Systems neuroscience |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biomedical Sciences (Leeds) |
Date Deposited: | 07 Oct 2025 14:57 |
Last Modified: | 07 Oct 2025 14:57 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113483 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:232539 |
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