ArticleNeuroimage. Reports2025
Resting-state functional connectivity changes in the human brain from electrically-stimulated (2 Hz), rhythmic muscle contractions to the hand: An exploratory study.
Article in Neuroimage. Reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Sensory nerves from contracting skeletal muscles can alter autonomic functions mediated by connections in the medulla and hypothalamus. We hypothesized that low-frequency, non-voluntary, rhythmical electrical stimulation of small muscles of the hand, in contrast to continuous sensory stimulation of the overlying skin, will change functional connectivity in the brain revealing specific regions of the muscle afferent-pituitary axis. Using a 2x2 design, eight healthy young participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) immediately before and after a 45-min electrical stimulation session with 2 Hz to the left hand muscles and a counterbalanced session with continuous 100 Hz skin stimulation to the same region. Using standardized CONN toolbox software, functional connectivity data were analyzed. Rhythmic muscle stimulation led to significant differences in connectivity associated with the autonomic and limbic systems such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, periaqueductal gray, thalamus, basal ganglia, plus insulae and cingulate cortices. In addition, the muscle stimulation led to changes in several resting state networks. Importantly, using a tightly controlled 2x2 rsfMRI design, the different stimulation protocols were applied to each subject (within-subject design), which led to significant differences in patterns of functional connectivity changes after the muscle versus skin stimulation conditions with only a small number of participants. In conclusion, significant differences in brain networks involving autonomic and limbic systems were activated by using low-frequency, rhythmical stimulation of small hand muscles. In contrast to skin electrical stimulation, which primarily entailed exteroceptive input, muscle electrical stimulation significantly engaged neural networks implicated in interoception, including the insula and hypothalamus.
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.