The influence of the gamma system on cross-correlated activity of Ia muscle spindles and its relation to information transmission

Supraspinal modulation of neuronal synchronization by nociceptive stimulation induces an enduring reorganization of dorsal horn neuronal connectivity

KEY POINTS

The state of central sensitization induced by the intradermic injection of capsaicin leads to structured (non-random) changes in functional connectivity between dorsal horn neuronal populations distributed along the spinal lumbar segments in anaesthetized cats. The capsaicin-induced changes in neuronal connectivity and the concurrent increase in secondary hyperalgesia are transiently reversed by the systemic administration of small doses of lidocaine, a clinically effective procedure to treat neuropathic pain. The effects of both capsaicin and lidocaine are greatly attenuated in spinalized preparations, showing that supraspinal influences play a significant role in the shaping of nociceptive-induced changes in dorsal horn functional neuronal connectivity. We conclude that changes in functional connectivity between segmental populations of dorsal horn neurones induced by capsaicin and lidocaine result from a cooperative adaptive interaction between supraspinal and spinal neuronal networks, a process that may have a relevant role in the pathogenesis of chronic pain and analgesia.

ABSTRACT

Despite a profusion of information on the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the central sensitization produced by intense nociceptive stimulation, the changes in the patterns of functional connectivity between spinal neurones associated with the development of secondary hyperalgesia and allodynia remain largely unknown. Here we show that the state of central sensitization produced by the intradermal injection of capsaicin is associated with structured transformations in neuronal synchronization that lead to an enduring reorganization of the functional connectivity within a segmentally distributed ensemble of dorsal horn neurones. These changes are transiently reversed by the systemic administration of small doses of lidocaine, a clinically effective procedure to treat neuropathic pain. Lidocaine also reduces the capsaicin-induced facilitation of the spinal responses evoked by weak mechanical stimulation of the skin in the region of secondary but not primary hyperalgesia. The effects of both intradermic capsaicin and systemic lidocaine on the segmental correlation and coherence between ongoing cord dorsum potentials and on the responses evoked by tactile stimulation in the region of secondary hyperalgesia are greatly attenuated in spinalized preparations, showing that supraspinal influences are involved in the reorganization of the nociceptive-induced structured patterns of dorsal horn neuronal connectivity. We conclude that the structured reorganization of the functional connectivity between the dorsal horn neurones induced by capsaicin nociceptive stimulation results from cooperative interactions between supraspinal and spinal networks, a process that may have a relevant role in the shaping of the spinal state in the pathogenesis of chronic pain and analgesia.

Influences of premotoneuronal command statistics on the scaling of motor output variability during isometric plantar flexion

This study focuses on neuromuscular mechanisms behind ankle torque and EMG variability during a maintained isometric plantar flexion contraction. Experimentally obtained torque standard deviation (SD) and soleus, medial gastrocnemius, and lateral gastrocnemius EMG envelope mean and SD increased with mean torque for a wide range of torque levels. Computer simulations were performed on a biophysically-based neuromuscular model of the triceps surae consisting of premotoneuronal spike trains (the global input, GI) driving the motoneuron pools of the soleus, medial gastrocnemius, and lateral gastrocnemius muscles, which activate their respective muscle units. Two types of point processes were adopted to represent the statistics of the GI: Poisson and Gamma. Simulations showed a better agreement with experimental results when the GI was modeled by Gamma point processes having lower orders (higher variability) for higher target torques. At the same time, the simulations reproduced well the experimental data of EMG envelope mean and SD as a function of mean plantar flexion torque, for the three muscles. These results suggest that the experimentally found relations between torque-EMG variability as a function of mean plantar flexion torque level depend not only on the intrinsic properties of the motoneuron pools and the muscle units innervated, but also on the increasing variability of the premotoneuronal GI spike trains when their mean rates increase to command a higher plantar flexion torque level. The simulations also provided information on spike train statistics of several hundred motoneurons that compose the triceps surae, providing a wide picture of the associated mechanisms behind torque and EMG variability.

Noise-enhanced kinaesthesia: a psychophysical and microneurographic study

We first explored whether the ability of subjects to detect the direction of slow ramp imposed movements may be improved by the application of mechanical noise to muscle tendons. Movements were plantar/dorsal flexion of the ankle at 0.04°/s, and the amplitude was just sub-threshold for each subject. A white noise signal (random vibration), low-pass filtered to 100 Hz and distributed uniformly in amplitude, was applied to both the extensor and the flexor ankle muscle tendons with four different mean amplitudes (20, 30, 100, 280 μm). The population of subjects was observed to exhibit clear stochastic-type behaviour: their ability to determine the direction of sub-threshold movements significantly increased when the two lower levels of noise were added and subsequently decreased when the noise magnitude was enhanced. Second, using microneurography, we explored the response of 9 primary muscle spindle afferents and 8 cutaneous afferents to the same imposed movements with and without noise application. While these conditions of ankle mobilisation were too small to induce a response in most of the recorded afferents, two muscle afferents exhibited responses that were characteristic of aperiodic stochastic resonance behaviour: the unit movement response was either triggered or improved by the application of an optimal level of noise. All cutaneous afferents were unresponsive to the imposed movements with or without noise application. We conclude that ankle movement sense can be significantly improved by adding an optimal level of mechanical noise to ankle muscle tendons and discuss the optimisation of the response of movement-encoding receptors that may account for this improvement. The application of a mechanical noise on ankle muscle tendons may constitute a means of improving postural stability in subjects with sensory deficits.

What muscle variable(s) does the nervous system control in limb movements?

To control force accurately under a wide range of behavioral conditions, the central nervous system would either require a detailed, continuously updated representation of the state of each muscle (and the load against which each is acting) or else force feedback with sufficient gain to cope with variations in the properties of the muscles and loads. The evidence for force feedback with adequate gain or for an appropriate central representation is not sufficient to conclude that force is the major controlled variable in normal limb movements.

Morton's hypothesis, that length is controlled by a follow-up servo, has a number of difficulties related to the delays, gains, variability, and specificity in feedback pathways comprising potential servo loops. However, experimental evidence is consistent with these pathways providing servo assistance for some movements produced by coactivation of α- and static γ-motoneurons. Dynamic γ-motoneurons may provide an additional input for adaptive control of different types of movements.

The idea that feedback is used to compensate for changes in muscle stiffness has received experimental support under static postural conditions. However, reflexes tend to increase rather than decrease the range of variation in muscle stiffness during some cyclic movements. Theoretical problems associated with the regulation of stiffness are also discussed. The possibilities of separate control systems for velocity or viscosity are considered, but the evidence is either negative or lacking. I conclude that different physical variables can be controlled depending on the type of limb movement required. The concept of stiffness regulation is also useful under some conditions, but should probably be extended to the regulation of the visco-elastic properties (i.e., the mechanical impedance) of a muscle or joint.

Stretch reflexes and joint dynamics in rheumatoid arthritis

In clinically diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA), studies were conducted to investigate the reflex and passive tissue contribution to measured increases in joint stiffness in the resting upper limb and during constant contractions of an attached muscle. The tonic stretch reflex was induced by a servo-controlled sinusoidal stretch perturbation of the metacarpophalangeal joint of RA patients, and age- and sex-matched controls. The resulting reflexes and mechanical changes in the RA affected joint were explored. Surface electromyographic (EMG) measurements were obtained from first dorsal interosseus muscle. Reflex gain (EMG/joint angle amplitude ratio), phase difference (reflex delay after stretch), coherence square (proportion of EMG variance accounted for by joint angle changes), joint mechanical gain (torque-joint angle amplitude ratio) and mechanical phase difference (torque response delay after stretch) were determined. RA patients showed decreased reflex gain that was partly due to coexistent severe muscle weakness, as determined from maximum voluntary contraction and grip pressure estimates. The decreased reflex gain was most evident at high stretch frequency suggesting a disproportionate loss of the large diameter afferent response and also increased reflex delay in the patients. These changes ensemble suggest significant loss of neural drive to the motor unit population. Patients also showed increased joint stiffness (measured as torque gain) in the contracting muscle, but there was no evidence of reflex activity or increased stiffness at rest. This suggests that the increased joint stiffness in RA was due to changes in the mechanical properties of the active muscle-joint system rather than changes in reflex properties.

Computational motor control: feedback and accuracy

Speed/accuracy trade-off is a ubiquitous phenomenon in motor behaviour, which has been ascribed to the presence of signal-dependent noise (SDN) in motor commands. Although this explanation can provide a quantitative account of many aspects of motor variability, including Fitts' law, the fact that this law is frequently violated, e.g. during the acquisition of new motor skills, remains unexplained. Here, we describe a principled approach to the influence of noise on motor behaviour, in which motor variability results from the interplay between sensory and motor execution noises in an optimal feedback-controlled system. In this framework, we first show that Fitts' law arises due to signal-dependent motor noise (SDN(m)) when sensory (proprioceptive) noise is low, e.g. under visual feedback. Then we show that the terminal variability of non-visually guided movement can be explained by the presence of signal-dependent proprioceptive noise. Finally, we show that movement accuracy can be controlled by opposite changes in signal-dependent sensory (SDN(s)) and SDN(m), a phenomenon that could be ascribed to muscular co-contraction. As the model also explains kinematics, kinetics, muscular and neural characteristics of reaching movements, it provides a unified framework to address motor variability.

Changes in human muscle spindle sensitivity during a proprioceptive attention task

The aim of the present study was to test whether fusimotor control of human muscle spindle sensitivity changed when attention was selectively directed to the recognition of an imposed two-dimensional movement in the form of a written symbol. The unitary activities of 32 muscle spindle afferents (26 Ia, 6 II) were recorded by microneurography at the level of the common peroneal nerve. The patterns of firing rate in response to passive movements of the ankle, forming different letters or numbers, were compared in two conditions: control and recognition. No visual cues were given in either condition, but subjects had to recognize and name the character in one condition compared with not paying attention in the control condition. The results showed that 58% of the tested Ia afferents presented modified responses to movements when these had to be recognized. Changes in Ia afferent responses included decreased depth of modulation, increased variability of discharge, and changes in spontaneous activity. Not all changes were evident in the same afferent. Furthermore, the percentage of correctly recognized movements amounted to 63% when changes were observed, but it was only 48% when the primary ending sensitivity was unaltered. The responses of group II afferents were only weakly changed or unchanged. It is suggested that the altered muscle spindle sensitivity is because of selective changes in fusimotor control, the consequence of which might be to feed the brain movement trajectory information that is more accurate.

Estimation of muscle spindle information rate by pattern matching and the effect of gamma system activity on parallel spindles

The information transmission properties of ensembles of MSs and the effect of the gamma system on these properties were studied. Three converging lines of research were taken: (1) the development of information theoretic estimation tools, and the formulation of an "operational" interpretation for the information rate; (2) animal experiments in which the mutual information rate was estimated and the effect of the gamma system was quantified; (3) simulation of a muscle spindle model with gamma activation in order to corroborate the results of the animal experiments. The main hypothesis was that the gamma system will enhance information theoretic measures that quantify the quality of the sensory neural channel comprised from an ensemble of primary muscle spindle afferents. A random stimulus was applied to a muscle in the hind limb of a cat, while spike trains from several primary MS afferents were recorded simultaneously. The stimulus was administered twice, with an operative and a disconnected gamma system. The mutual information rate between the stimulus and spike trains, as well as other information theoretic measures, was estimated. The information rate of ensembles of MSs increased with increasing ensemble size. However, with an operative gamma system the "ensemble effect" was much higher. In addition, the ensemble effect was influenced by the stimulus spectrum. A muscle spindle population model with gamma activation was simulated with stimuli that were identical to that of the animal experiments. The simulation results supported the experimental results and corroborated the main hypothesis. The results indicate that the gamma system has an important role in enhancing information transmission from ensembles of MSs to the spinal cord.

Increased muscle spindle sensitivity to movement during reinforcement manoeuvres in relaxed human subjects

1. The effects of reinforcement manoeuvres, such as mental computation and the Jendrassik manoeuvre, on muscle spindle sensitivity to passively imposed sinusoidal stretching (1.5 deg, 2 Hz) in relaxed subjects were analysed. 2. The unitary activity of 26 muscle spindle afferents (23 Ia, 3 II) originating from ankle muscles was recorded using the microneurographic method. Particular care was paid to the subjects' state of physical and mental relaxation. 3. The results showed that the activity of 54 % of the Ia afferents was modified during mental computation. The modifications took the form of either an increase in the number of spikes (mean, 26 % among 11 Ia fibres) or a shortening in the latency of the response to sinusoidal stretching (mean, 13 ms among 3 Ia fibres), or both. They were sometimes accompanied by an enhanced variability in the instantaneous discharge frequency. The three secondary endings tested exhibited no change in their sensitivity to stretch during mental computation. 4. The increased sensitivity to passive movements sometimes began as soon as the instructions were given to the subjects and sometimes increased during mental computation. In addition, the increased sensitivity either stopped after the subjects gave the right answer or continued for several minutes. 5. During the performance of a Jendrassik manoeuvre, the Ia units underwent changes similar to those described above for mental computation. 6. It was concluded that muscle spindle sensitivity to movement can be modified in relaxed human subjects. The results reinforce the idea that the fusimotor system plays a role in arousal and expectancy, and contribute to narrowing the gap between human and behaving animal data.

Alterations in information transmission in ensembles of primary muscle spindle afferents after muscle fatigue in heteronymous muscle

This study showed that fatigue of the ipsilateral medial gastrocnemius muscle caused a clear-cut reduction in the ability of ensembles of primary muscle spindle afferents from the lateral gastrocnemius muscle to discriminate between muscle stretches of varying amplitude. The results were probably caused by reflex-mediated effects from chemosensitive group III and IV afferents onto the gamma-motoneurons projecting to lateral gastrocnemius muscle spindles. The experiments were conducted on seven cats anaesthetized with alpha-chloralose and a total of 41 primary muscle spindle afferents from the lateral gastrocnemius were registered. Afferents were simultaneously recorded in ensembles of three to 10 afferents. A method based on principal component analysis and algorithms for quantification of stimulus discrimination in ensembles of muscle afferents was used prior to, immediately following and five or more minutes after muscle fatigue had been induced to the ipsilateral medial gastrocnemius muscle. It is well established that the primary muscle spindle afferents play an important role in proprioception and kinaesthesia. Therefore the decrease in the accuracy of the information transmitted by ensembles of primary muscle spindle afferents caused by fatigue in an ipsilateral muscle implies concomitant effects on proprioception and kinaesthesia.

Representation of wrist joint kinematics by the ensemble of muscle spindles from synergistic muscles

Proprioceptive information about movement is transmitted to the central nervous system by a variety of receptor types, which are widely distributed among the muscles, joints, and skin. Muscle spindles are known to be an important and reliable source of information for the perception of movement kinematics. Previous studies that focused on the characteristics of single muscle spindle firing patterns have left the impression that each receptor fires in relation to a number of kinematic variables, leaving the following question unanswered: what role is played by the ensemble of muscle spindles within the same muscle or within synergistic muscles? The study described in this paper addressed whether the perception of joint position and velocity is based on the net input of muscle spindles residing in all synergistic muscles crossing a joint. Normal human adults performed a motor coordination task that required perception of joint velocity and dynamic position at the wrist. The task was to open the left hand briskly as the right wrist was passively rotated in the flexion direction through a prescribed target angle. In randomly occurring trials, the tendons to three muscles [extensor carpi radialis (ECR), extensor carpi ulnaris (ECU), and extensor digitorum (ED)] were vibrated either individually or in different combinations during the performance of the motor task. Tendon vibration is known to distort muscle spindle firing patterns, and consequently, kinesthesia. By comparing performance errors with and without tendon vibration, the relative influences of muscle spindles residing in ECR, ECU, and ED were quantified. Vibration of the individual ECR, ECU, or ED tendons produced systematic undershoot errors in performance, consistent with the misperception of wrist velocity and dynamic position. Performance errors were larger when combinations of, rather than individual, muscle tendons were vibrated. The error resulting from simultaneous vibration of ECR and ECU was roughly equal to the sum of the errors produced by vibration of the individual tendons. These effects of vibrating synergistic tendons at the wrist suggest that kinesthesia is derived from the integrated input of muscle spindles from all synergistic muscles.

The role of the gamma-system for improving information transmission in populations of Ia afferents

Ensemble coding of simple mechanical stimuli (small sinusoidal stretches) was studied in populations of simultaneously recorded primary muscle spindle afferents (MSAs). The experiments were made on 39 primary MSAs in chloralose anaesthetised cats. For the analyses we used a combination of principal component analysis and algorithms for quantification of stimulus discrimination. Ensembles of primary MSAs discriminated better between different muscle stretches than individuals, and showed a successive increase in discriminative ability with increasing ensemble size. The ensemble effect disappeared after cutting the ventral roots, indicating an important role for the fusimotor system in ensemble coding. Simultaneously recorded ensembles of MSAs showed significantly better discriminative ability than pooled sequentially recorded MSAs. This difference was abolished by the cutting of the ventral roots. It is hypothesised that, since the muscle spindles are connected to each other via secondary MSAs (projecting to gamma-motoneurones to other spindles), the fusimotor-muscle spindle system may constitute a neural network, in which each 'neuron' (i.e., each individual muscle spindle) is influenced by the activity in the whole network. In populations of pooled sequentially recorded MSAs, the connections would not exist. Thus, the population would lose its neural network quality, and the encoding ability of the population would decrease.

Fusimotor reflexes to antagonistic muscles simultaneously assessed by multi-afferent recordings from muscle spindle afferents

Several single agonist/antagonist primary muscle spindle afferents were simultaneously recorded in chloralose anaesthetized cats. It was shown that their dynamic and static sensitivity to sinusoidal muscle stretches could be increased or decreased via the fusimotor system by extension and flexion of the contralateral hind limb as well as by stretch of ipsilateral muscles and stimulation of ipsilateral skin nerves. The results seem to support the hypothesis that the primary muscle spindle afferents convey complex multisensory messages to the central nervous system (CNS).

Detection of synchrony in the discharge of a population of neurons. I. Development of a synchronization index

A test for synchronization among the spike trains of muscle afferents or motor units is described which utilizes averages of neurograms and rectified neurograms. Synchronization is quantified by the increase of a synchronization index Is above a theoretical value for asynchrony. The dependence of the Is on signal amplitude and certain experimental conditions and a method of estimating confidence limits for the test are presented.

Effects of muscle model parameter dispersion and multi-loop segmental interaction on the neuromuscular system performance

The effects of parameter dispersion among motor units on the neuromuscular system performance as well as interaction between muscle segments and spinal cord mechanisms are investigated. Elementary components of the system are modeled to simulate with simple models their input-output characteristics. A leaky SS-IPFM encoder with a time-dependent threshold simulates the motor-neuron encoding characteristics. An amplitude and time dependent nonlinear model represent the motor unit mechanical output to neuronal input relationship. The dispersion of parameters in the components of the whole muscle control model is investigated in the open loop mode. It is shown that the dispersion of parameters in the multi-efferent channels converging on a common tendon provides a spatial filtration generating a smoother muscle force in addition to extending the linear dynamic range compared to a similar system having identical motor units. Muscle segmental interaction is investigated in this distributed model by closing the loop through a coupling matrix, representing afferent-motorneuron interaction on the spinal cord level. A diagonal matrix represents no segmental interaction and a uniform matrix represents a uniform interaction between segments through the muscle spindles and Golgi tendon feedback elements. The close loop simulation studied shows that (a). The type of segmental interaction has little effect on the overall system performance, i.e., range of linerity and stability, which is the result of having a muscle system with a large number of motor units. (b) There are only minor differences in results between the uniform and normal parameter distributions tested. (c) A loop gain of 4 divided by 8 in the distributed model can provide linearity through the full physiological force range. (d) Type of segmental interaction has significant effects on the individual segment. A uniform matrix provides a more stable segment due to the spatial filtration resulting from the segmental interaction, while the diagonal noninteracting matrix shows instabilities on the local segmental level despite global stability. The more realistic exponentially decaying spatial interaction matrix yields both global neuromuscular and local segmental stability with the same linear dynamic range generated with the uniform or diagonal matrices.

Excitatory post-synaptic potentials from single muscle spindle afferents in external intercostal motoneurones of the cat

1. The discharges of muscle spindle afferents from the external intercostal muscles of anaesthetized, paralysed cats were recorded from dorsal roots in continuity. The dynamic responses, regularities of firing and conduction velocities of the afferents were measured and used to characterize the afferents as primary-like or secondary-like. 2. The synchronization of afferent discharges was investigated by the construction of cross-correlation histograms from the simultaneously recorded discharges of pairs of afferents. The discharges of primary-like afferents with high dynamic responses were found to be synchronized within a few msec. The cardiac pulse was a strong contributary factor in this synchronization. 3. Intracellular recordings were made from external intercostal motoneurones, and spike-triggered averaging was used to reveal unitary e.p.s.p.s evoked by muscle spindle afferents which were from the same spinal cord segment. Dorsal roots other than the rootlet containing the afferent were cut to prevent the synchronization of afferent discharges from affecting the averaged e.p.s.p.s. 4. For primary-like afferents the mean amplitude of the e.p.s.p.s was 171 microV and the mean connectivity (the proportion of motoneurones connected by one afferent) was between 42 and 48%. 5. The amplitudes and shapes of the e.p.s.p.s varied with the respiratory phase, usually being larger in inspiration than in expiration and sometimes also having a longer time course. In particular some e.p.s.p.s showed that components, only represent in inspiration, which were interpreted as indicating polysynaptic connexions gated by the respiratory cycle. 6. The results are discussed in comparison with the connexions of individual muscle spindle afferents from other muscles, with particular reference to the conduction velocities of the afferents.