ArticleiScience2025
A single low-dimensional neural component of spinal motor neuron activity explains force generation across repetitive isometric tasks.
Article in iScience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Common inputs to motor units are modulated by force profile and muscle length.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Reduced knee extensor torque steadiness and increased motor unit discharge rate variability in young people with patellofemoral pain: a pilot study.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Low-dimensional control is thought to underlie spinal motor neuron activity, with low-frequency oscillations in common synaptic inputs serving as the primary determinant of muscle force production. Here, we used principal-component analysis and factor analysis to investigate the role of low-dimensional motor unit components in force production during repetitive isometric tasks with similar force profiles. In both individual and synergistic human muscles, the first motor unit component explained most of the variance in smoothed discharge rates and showed higher correlations with force oscillations than the second component. Additionally, the first component, but not the second, remained highly consistent across trials. A non-linear network-information framework further confirmed these findings, revealing high motor unit network density in the first component across all muscles. These results suggest that during isometric contractions, force oscillations are primarily driven by a single dominant shared synaptic input to spinal motor neuron activity.
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