Cortical contributions to locomotor primitives in toddlers and adults

Coen S. Zandvoort; Andreas Daffertshofer; Nadia Dominici

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105229

Cortical contributions to locomotor primitives in toddlers and adults

Coen S. Zandvoort, Andreas Daffertshofer, Nadia Dominici^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The neural locomotor system strongly relies on spinal circuitries. Yet, the control of bipedal gait is accompanied by activity in motor cortex. In human gait control, the functional interaction between these cortical contributions and their spinal counterparts are largely elusive. We focused on four spinal activation patterns during walking and explored their cortical signatures in toddlers and adults. In both groups, cortico-spinal coherence analysis revealed activity in primary motor cortex to be closely related to two of the four spinal patterns. Their corresponding muscle synergies are known to develop around the onset of independent walking. By hypothesis, the cortex hence contributes to the emergence of these synergies. In contrast, the other two spinal patterns investigated here resembled those present during newborn stepping. As expected, they did not show any cortical involvement. Together, our findings suggest a crucial role of motor cortex for independent walking in humans.

Original language	English
Article number	105229
Pages (from-to)	1-18
Number of pages	18
Journal	iScience
Volume	25
Issue number	10
Early online date	27 Sept 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105229
Publication status	Published - 21 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank Annike Bekius, Marije Goudriaan, Jennifer Kerkman, and Ruud Koster for their support during data collection and all participants and legal guardians for participating. We also thank Jaap van Dieën, John Stins, and Bernadette van Wijk for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program 715945 – “Learn2Walk” (N.D.) and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research ( NWO ) VIDI grant 016.156.346 – “FirSTeps” (N.D.).

Funding Information:
We would like to thank Annike Bekius, Marije Goudriaan, Jennifer Kerkman, and Ruud Koster for their support during data collection and all participants and legal guardians for participating. We also thank Jaap van Dieën, John Stins, and Bernadette van Wijk for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program 715945 – “Learn2Walk” (N.D.) and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VIDI grant 016.156.346 – “FirSTeps” (N.D.). Conceptualization: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Methodology: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Software: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Formal analysis: C.Z.; Investigation: C.Z. N.D.; Data Curation: C.Z.; Writing – original draft: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Writing – Review & Editing: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Visualization: C.Z.; Supervision: A.D. N.D.; Funding acquisition: N.D. The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

Funding

We would like to thank Annike Bekius, Marije Goudriaan, Jennifer Kerkman, and Ruud Koster for their support during data collection and all participants and legal guardians for participating. We also thank Jaap van Dieën, John Stins, and Bernadette van Wijk for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program 715945 – “Learn2Walk” (N.D.) and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research ( NWO ) VIDI grant 016.156.346 – “FirSTeps” (N.D.). We would like to thank Annike Bekius, Marije Goudriaan, Jennifer Kerkman, and Ruud Koster for their support during data collection and all participants and legal guardians for participating. We also thank Jaap van Dieën, John Stins, and Bernadette van Wijk for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program 715945 – “Learn2Walk” (N.D.) and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VIDI grant 016.156.346 – “FirSTeps” (N.D.). Conceptualization: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Methodology: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Software: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Formal analysis: C.Z.; Investigation: C.Z. N.D.; Data Curation: C.Z.; Writing – original draft: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Writing – Review & Editing: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Visualization: C.Z.; Supervision: A.D. N.D.; Funding acquisition: N.D. The authors declare no competing interests.

Funders	Funder number
Bernadette van Wijk
European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation	715945
European Research Council
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	016.156.346

Keywords

Behavioral neuroscience
Biological sciences
Neuroscience

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title = "Cortical contributions to locomotor primitives in toddlers and adults",

abstract = "The neural locomotor system strongly relies on spinal circuitries. Yet, the control of bipedal gait is accompanied by activity in motor cortex. In human gait control, the functional interaction between these cortical contributions and their spinal counterparts are largely elusive. We focused on four spinal activation patterns during walking and explored their cortical signatures in toddlers and adults. In both groups, cortico-spinal coherence analysis revealed activity in primary motor cortex to be closely related to two of the four spinal patterns. Their corresponding muscle synergies are known to develop around the onset of independent walking. By hypothesis, the cortex hence contributes to the emergence of these synergies. In contrast, the other two spinal patterns investigated here resembled those present during newborn stepping. As expected, they did not show any cortical involvement. Together, our findings suggest a crucial role of motor cortex for independent walking in humans.",

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note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank Annike Bekius, Marije Goudriaan, Jennifer Kerkman, and Ruud Koster for their support during data collection and all participants and legal guardians for participating. We also thank Jaap van Die{\"e}n, John Stins, and Bernadette van Wijk for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program 715945 – “Learn2Walk” (N.D.) and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research ( NWO ) VIDI grant 016.156.346 – “FirSTeps” (N.D.). Funding Information: We would like to thank Annike Bekius, Marije Goudriaan, Jennifer Kerkman, and Ruud Koster for their support during data collection and all participants and legal guardians for participating. We also thank Jaap van Die{\"e}n, John Stins, and Bernadette van Wijk for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program 715945 – “Learn2Walk” (N.D.) and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VIDI grant 016.156.346 – “FirSTeps” (N.D.). Conceptualization: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Methodology: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Software: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Formal analysis: C.Z.; Investigation: C.Z. N.D.; Data Curation: C.Z.; Writing – original draft: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Writing – Review & Editing: C.Z. A.D. N.D.; Visualization: C.Z.; Supervision: A.D. N.D.; Funding acquisition: N.D. The authors declare no competing interests. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Author(s)",

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Cortical contributions to locomotor primitives in toddlers and adults

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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