Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 2, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancing Varicocele Treatment with Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation
Published on: August 30, 2024
Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation with Kilohertz Frequency Alternating Current to Enhance Sensorimotor Cortical
Abstract:
Enhancement of cortical excitability has been demonstrated to be beneficial for neural recovery of motor dysfunction, such as stroke and spinal cord injury. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) has been widely used to evoke limb movements, resulting in the increasing cortical excitability. Due to the advantages of low skin impedance and less discomfort, an alternative NMES of kilohertz frequency alternating current (KFAC) has been proposed, and the effects of current parameters on evoked torque has been studied. However, few studies concerned cortical excitability effects during KFAC-evoked limb movement. In this paper, we utilized the event-related spectral estimation (ERSP) to calculate the beta ERD values to investigate the effects of KFAC-evoked elbow flexion movement on cortical excitability and compared them with that of passive movement. Firstly, averaged ERSP values were extracted in beta band during elbow flexion movements by sliding a 2Hz wide window for all trails of each subject. And then the minimal value was chosen as the representative value of beta ERD. Finally, the absolute ERD values and the descending slopes of all subjects were both calculated for statistical analysis by one-way repeated measures ANOVA. The results showed KFAC can increase cortical excitability, especially with long pulse duration. Moreover, beta cortical activities during KFAC500-evoked movement are significantly activated than those during passive movement. Therefore, our study may provide a new NMES rehabilitation method to enhance cortical excitability for motor dysfunction patients.
More Related Videos
11:11Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on the Primary Motor Cortex by Online Combined Approach with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Published on: September 23, 2017
10:37Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS for Memory Enhancement
Published on: September 18, 2021
Related Concept Videos
Electrical Current
Electric Generator: Alternator
The magnetic flux passing through the coil varies sinusoidally as the loop rotates inside the magnetic field. This...
Muscle Stimulation Frequency
Wave summation
At low firing rates, motor neurons induce individual twitch contractions in muscle fibers. These twitches...
Alternative RNA Splicing
There are five types of alternative RNA splicing that vary in the ways the pre-mRNA segments are removed or retained in the mature mRNA. The first...
Alternative RNA Splicing
Frequency-dependent Selection