2023 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 12-23
Coordinated muscle activity can be elicited by inducing passive stepping for individuals with spinal cord injury. This neural activity, so-called “locomotor-like muscle activity” is considered as a result of elicitation of spinal locomotor circuits. The aim of this study is to test if the characterization of locomotor-like muscle activity can be effectively work as a new evaluation method for the gait function in patients with spinal cord injury. We here attempted to conduct analysis for locomotor-like muscle activity obtained from 44 individuals with chronic spinal cord injury. All subjects participated robot-assisted passive stepping with the measurement of seven key muscles in each lower limb. We obtained spatiotemporal map in accordance with the innervated spinal segment of each muscle and its relevance to the gait phase. The results demonstrated that (1) sacral segment activity during stance phase was augmented in response to load application in both complete and incomplete SCI, and (2) lower lumber segment activity during early stance phase could be elicited by voluntary activation in incomplete SCI. Importantly, spastic activity which presumably due to SCI specific activity can be clearly characterized. The proposed evaluation method has a potential usefulness for the residual locomotor function in patients with SCI.
