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I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements

Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) is a method of electrical stimulation that elicits activity in sensory nerves and leads to improvements in the clinical metrics of mobility. However, the underlying perceptual mechanisms leading to this improvement are unknown. The aim of this study w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Whittier, Tyler T., Weller, Zachary D., Fling, Brett W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9317326/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35891122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22145442
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author Whittier, Tyler T.
Weller, Zachary D.
Fling, Brett W.
author_facet Whittier, Tyler T.
Weller, Zachary D.
Fling, Brett W.
author_sort Whittier, Tyler T.
collection PubMed
description Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) is a method of electrical stimulation that elicits activity in sensory nerves and leads to improvements in the clinical metrics of mobility. However, the underlying perceptual mechanisms leading to this improvement are unknown. The aim of this study was to apply a Bayesian inference model to understand how TENS impacts sensorimotor uncertainty during full body stepping movements. Thirty healthy adults visited the lab on two occasions and completed a motor learning protocol in virtual reality (VR) on both visits. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: TENS on first visit only (TN), TENS on second visit only (NT), or a control group where TENS was not applied on either visit (NN). Using methods of Bayesian inference, we calculated the amount of uncertainty in the participants’ center of mass (CoM) position estimates on each visit. We found that groups TN and NT decreased the amount of uncertainty in the CoM position estimates in their second visit while group NN showed no difference. The least amount of uncertainty was seen in the TN group. These results suggest that TENS reduces the amount of uncertainty in sensory information, which may be a cause for the observed benefits with TENS.
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spelling pubmed-93173262022-07-27 I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements Whittier, Tyler T. Weller, Zachary D. Fling, Brett W. Sensors (Basel) Article Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) is a method of electrical stimulation that elicits activity in sensory nerves and leads to improvements in the clinical metrics of mobility. However, the underlying perceptual mechanisms leading to this improvement are unknown. The aim of this study was to apply a Bayesian inference model to understand how TENS impacts sensorimotor uncertainty during full body stepping movements. Thirty healthy adults visited the lab on two occasions and completed a motor learning protocol in virtual reality (VR) on both visits. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: TENS on first visit only (TN), TENS on second visit only (NT), or a control group where TENS was not applied on either visit (NN). Using methods of Bayesian inference, we calculated the amount of uncertainty in the participants’ center of mass (CoM) position estimates on each visit. We found that groups TN and NT decreased the amount of uncertainty in the CoM position estimates in their second visit while group NN showed no difference. The least amount of uncertainty was seen in the TN group. These results suggest that TENS reduces the amount of uncertainty in sensory information, which may be a cause for the observed benefits with TENS. MDPI 2022-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9317326/ /pubmed/35891122 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22145442 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Whittier, Tyler T.
Weller, Zachary D.
Fling, Brett W.
I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements
title I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements
title_full I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements
title_fullStr I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements
title_full_unstemmed I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements
title_short I Can Step Clearly Now, the TENS Is On: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation Decreases Sensorimotor Uncertainty during Stepping Movements
title_sort i can step clearly now, the tens is on: transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation decreases sensorimotor uncertainty during stepping movements
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9317326/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35891122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22145442
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