000170990 001__ 170990
000170990 005__ 20260430151736.0
000170990 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1113/JP290395
000170990 0248_ $$2sideral$$a149080
000170990 037__ $$aART-2026-149080
000170990 041__ $$aeng
000170990 100__ $$aYanguas Mayo, Javier$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza
000170990 245__ $$aSpinal motor neuron pools may be partly driven by impulsive common inputs
000170990 260__ $$c2026
000170990 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted
000170990 5203_ $$aSpinal motor neurons serve as the link between the nervous system and muscles. As the final common pathway of the neuromuscular system, they receive inputs from both higher‐level controllers and afferent pathways. It is often assumed that spinal motor neurons are primarily driven by continuous common inputs (cCI) within different frequency bands. Within this framework, the motor neuron pool behaves as a linear amplifier of the cCI. This implies that the frequency content of descending and spinal oscillatory signals is preserved and faithfully transmitted to the muscles; thus, the spectral content at the output of the motor neuron pool corresponds to that of the cCI. However, this framework overlooks the possibility that motor neurons could also be driven by impulsive common inputs (iCI), which can induce synchronization among them and disrupt the linear transmission of other synaptic inputs at the pool level. To test this hypothesis, computational simulations and experimental data from two different human muscles were used to characterize different aspects related to motor neuron spiking synchronization at the pool level. Our findings suggest that, indeed, iCI can account for relevant features observed in experimental data such as the presence of synchronization events at the pool level. We also observed that such impulsive inputs can affect the linearity in the transmission of cCI by the motor neuron pool. This study represents pioneering indirect evidence of the existence of iCI as inputs to motor neurons.
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Key points
The current understanding of the motor control of voluntary movements assumes a continuous control, driven by oscillatory common signals.
Some aspects of motor unit pool behaviour (particularly in terms of spiking synchronization and spectral content) typically observed in experimental recordings cannot be reproduced in simulations that only use continuous common inputs (cCI) to motor neurons.
This study provides evidence indicating that spinal motor neurons receive a portion of their synaptic input in the form of impulsive common inputs (iCI) that synchronize their activity.
The study also shows how such iCI can affect the linear transmission of other cCI by the motor neuron pool.
These findings constitute a fundamental paradigm shift in the understanding of motor control and impact the development of interfaces that extract information from the activity of spinal motor neurons.
000170990 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby$$uhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es
000170990 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
000170990 700__ $$aPascual Valdunciel, Alejandro$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza
000170990 700__ $$aBaker, Stuart N
000170990 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0003-3434-9254$$aLaguna, Pablo$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza
000170990 700__ $$aFarina, Dario
000170990 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0001-8439-151X$$aIbáñez Pereda, Jaime$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza
000170990 7102_ $$15008$$2800$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDpto. Ingeniería Electrón.Com.$$cÁrea Teoría Señal y Comunicac.
000170990 773__ $$g(2026), [19 pp.]$$pJ. physiol.$$tJOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON$$x0022-3751
000170990 8564_ $$s1680049$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/170990/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada
000170990 8564_ $$s1761964$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/170990/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada
000170990 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:170990$$particulos$$pdriver
000170990 951__ $$a2026-04-30-13:58:34
000170990 980__ $$aARTICLE