Sensory gating and suppression of subjective peripheral sensations during voluntary muscle contraction
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BMC Neuroscience Open Access
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Sensory gating and suppression of subjective peripheral sensations during voluntary muscle contraction Terumasa Takahara1* , Hidetaka Yamaguchi1, Kazutoshi Seki2 and Sho Onodera3
Abstract Background: During voluntary muscle contraction, sensory information induced by electrostimulation of the nerves supplying the contracting muscle is inhibited and the somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) amplitude decreases. This depression of sensory input during voluntary muscle contraction has been demonstrated by many studies using electrophysiological methods. However, the association between the electrophysiological response of the sensory system during sustained muscle contraction and subjective peripheral sensation (SPS) is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in spinal excitability, SEPs, and SPS during voluntary muscle contraction. Results: The appearance rate of the F-wave was significantly higher during muscle contraction than rest, whereas no significant difference was observed in F-wave latency between muscle contraction and rest. Furthermore, the P25 amplitude of SEPs was significantly lower during muscle contraction than rest, whereas the N20 amplitude of SEPs exhibited no significant differences. The SPS was significantly lower during muscle contraction than rest Conclusions: We conclude that sensory gating, which is found in the P25 component of SEPs during muscle contraction, is one of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the suppression of SPS. Keywords: Subjective peripheral sensation, F-wave, Somatosensory evoked potential, Muscle contraction Background Human motor control results from integration of the sensory and motor systems, which are regulated by the relationship between the upper and lower centers, i.e., the brain and spinal cord, respectively. When peripheral nerves are electrically stimulated, a direct motor response (M-wave) occurs in the muscle due to anterograde conduction from the stimulated area. At the same time, the ascending afferent input is projected to the somatosensory cerebral cortex via the spinal cord, and a somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in the cortex can be recorded. During voluntary muscle contraction, *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Sport Social Management, KIBI International University, 8 Igamachi, Takahashi, Okayama 716‑8508, Japan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
sensory information induced by electrostimulation of the nerves supplying the contracting muscle is inhibited and the SEP amplitude decreases [1–4]. The suppression of the sensory potential is known as “gating”. With respect to gating during voluntary movement, previous studies reported that the amount of gating depends on the difficulty of the movement [5], and that gating is observed not only during motion but also pre-motion [6]. Furthermore, suppression of sensory input has already occurred when the spinal cord (a midpoint between the cerebral cortex and perip
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