Effect of Cervical Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation on Sensorimotor Cortical Activity during Upper-Limb Movements in Healthy Individuals

J. Clin. Med., 2022 · DOI: 10.3390/jcm11041043 · Published: February 17, 2022

Simple Explanation

This study investigates how transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) affects brain activity during arm movements. EEG was used to measure brain activity in 30 healthy participants while they performed repetitive arm movements with and without tSCS. The study examined changes in cortical oscillations, specifically event-related (de)synchronization (ERD/ERS), to see if tSCS altered brain activity related to movement. The intensity of tSCS was tailored to each participant. The findings suggest that a single 10-minute session of tSCS may not be enough to consistently change brain activity related to movement in all people. However, high intensities of stimulation may have an inhibitory effect on the cortex.

Study Duration

Not specified

Participants

30 healthy volunteers

Evidence Level

Not specified

Key Findings

1
A single 10 min session of tSCS delivered to the cervical region of the spine was not sufﬁcient to induce consistent changes in sensorimotor cortical activity among the entire cohort.
2
Participants who received the highest stimulation intensities had signiﬁcantly weakened ERD/ERS (10% ERS) compared to when tSCS was not applied (25% ERD; p = 0.016), suggestive of cortical inhibition.
3
Resting state individual alpha peak frequency was not signiﬁcantly altered by tSCS (p = 0.67), showing an approximately 0% change from pre-intervention alpha for both stimulation conditions.

Research Summary

This study investigated the effect of cervical transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) on sensorimotor cortical activity during upper-limb movements in healthy individuals, using EEG to measure brain oscillations. The results showed that a single 10-minute session of tSCS did not consistently modulate sensorimotor brain rhythms across the entire group of participants. However, a subset of participants who received higher stimulation intensities showed diminished ERD, suggesting a potential inhibitory effect of tSCS on cortical activity under high-intensity conditions.

Practical Implications

Individualized tSCS Intensity

Tuning stimulation intensity to the individual is important, as higher intensities may be necessary to elicit cortical changes.

Session Duration

Longer tSCS sessions may be needed to induce more consistent and measurable effects on sensorimotor cortical activity.

Targeted Population

Future studies should include clinical populations (e.g., SCI patients) who may exhibit more pronounced responses to tSCS.

Study Limitations

1
Lack of consistent neuromodulation across all participants.
2
Potential influence of discomfort on cortical activity at high stimulation intensities.
3
Absence of a clinical population (e.g., spinal cord injury patients).

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