Standard intensities of transcranial alternating current stimulation over the motor cortex do not entrain corticospinal inputs to motor neurons
File(s)TACS_SMU_JP_R1_Submit.docx (2.53 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) is commonly used to synchronise a cortical area and its outputs to the stimulus waveform, but evidence for this based on brain recordings in humans is challenging. The corticospinal tract transmits beta oscillations (~21Hz) from motor cortex to tonically contracted limb muscles linearly. Therefore, muscle activity may be used to measure the level of beta entrainment in the corticospinal tract due to TACS over motor cortex. Here, we assessed if TACS is able to modulate the neural inputs to muscles, which would provide indirect evidence for TACS-driven neural entrainment. In the first part of this study, we ran simulations of motor neuron (MN) pools receiving inputs from corticospinal neurons with different levels of beta entrainment. Results suggest that MNs are highly sensitive to changes in corticospinal beta activity. Then, we ran experiments on healthy human subjects (N=10) in which TACS (at 1mA) was delivered over the motor cortex at 21Hz (beta stimulation), or at 7Hz or 40Hz (control conditions) while the abductor digiti minimi or the tibialis anterior muscle were tonically contracted. Muscle activity was measured using high-density electromyography, which allowed us to decompose the activity of pools of motor units innervating the muscles. By analysing motor unit pool activity, we observed that none of the TACS conditions could consistently alter the spectral contents of the common neural inputs received by the muscles. These results suggest that 1mA-TACS over motor cortex given at beta frequencies does not entrain corticospinal activity.
Date Issued
2023-08-01
Date Acceptance
2022-06-22
Citation
The Journal of Physiology, 2023, 601 (15), pp.3187-3199
ISSN
0022-3751
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
3187
End Page
3199
Journal / Book Title
The Journal of Physiology
Volume
601
Issue
15
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2022 The Physiological Society.
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-09-27