ArticleThe Journal of physiology2012
Firing patterns of spontaneously active motor units in spinal cord-injured subjects.
Article in The Journal of physiology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Leveraging neural drive to assess hand motor function in individuals with chronic stroke.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Neuromuscular adaptations in soleus and tibialis anterior muscles in persons with spinal cord injury.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- In vivo estimation of motor unit intrinsic properties in individuals with spinal cord injury.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Mechanisms of Different Motor Neurons in the Occurrence of Spasticity After Spinal Cord Injury: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Properties of the surface electromyogram following traumatic spinal cord injury: a scoping review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2021Article
- Effect of synchronization of firings of different motor unit types on the force variability in a model of the rat medial gastrocnemius muscle.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Calpain fosters the hyperexcitability of motoneurons after spinal cord injury and leads to spasticity.eLife · 2019Article
- Motoneuron Death after Human Spinal Cord Injury.Journal of neurotrauma · 2017Article
- Increases in human motoneuron excitability after cervical spinal cord injury depend on the level of injury.Journal of neurophysiology · 2017Article
- Cleavage of Na(+) channels by calpain increases persistent Na(+) current and promotes spasticity after spinal cord injury.Nature medicine · 2016Article
- Alterations in multidimensional motor unit number index of hand muscles after incomplete cervical spinal cord injury.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2015Article
- Identification and classification of involuntary leg muscle contractions in electromyographic records from individuals with spinal cord injury.Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology · 2014Article
- Changes in motoneuron afterhyperpolarization duration in stroke survivors.Journal of neurophysiology · 2014Article
- Motor unit firing rates during spasms in thenar muscles of spinal cord injured subjects.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2014Article
- Age at spinal cord injury determines muscle strength.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2014Article
- A minimal dose of electrically induced muscle activity regulates distinct gene signaling pathways in humans with spinal cord injury.PloS one · 2014Article
- Recovery of neuronal and network excitability after spinal cord injury and implications for spasticity.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2014Review
- Glutamate modulates the firing rate in oculomotor nucleus motoneurons as a function of the recruitment threshold current.The Journal of physiology · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Involuntary motor unit activity at low rates is common in hand muscles paralysed by spinal cord injury. Our aim was to describe these patterns of motor unit behaviour in relation to motoneurone and motor unit properties. Intramuscular electromyographic activity (EMG), surface EMG and force were recorded for 30 min from thenar muscles of nine men with chronic cervical SCI. Motor units fired for sustained periods (>10 min) at regular (coefficient of variation ≤ 0.15, CV, n =19 units) or irregular intervals (CV>0.15, n =14). Regularly firing units started and stopped firing independently suggesting that intrinsic motoneurone properties were important for recruitment and derecruitment. Recruitment (3.6 Hz, SD 1.2), maximal (10.2 Hz, SD 2.3, range: 7.5-15.4 Hz) and derecruitment frequencies were low (3.3 Hz, SD 1.6), as were firing rate increases after recruitment (~20 intervals in 3 s). Once active, firing often covaried, promoting the idea that units received common inputs.Half of the regularly firing units showed a very slow decline (>40 s) in discharge before derecruitment and had interspike intervals longer than their estimated after hyperpolarisation potential (AHP) duration (estimated by death rate and breakpoint analyses). The other units were derecruited more abruptly and had shorter estimated AHP durations. Overall, regularly firing units had longer estimated AHP durations and were weaker than irregularly firing units, suggesting they were lower threshold units. Sustained firing of units at regular rates may reflect activation of persistent inward currents, visible here in the absence of voluntary drive, whereas irregularly firing units may only respond to synaptic noise.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.