Muscle function alterations in a Parkinson's disease animal model: Electromyographic recordings dataset

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering
• Physiology

Background:

• Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis relies on motor deficits from dopaminergic neuron loss.
• The 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rat model mimics PD motor symptoms by degenerating nigrostriatal neurons.
• Muscle function changes over time in this PD model remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a PD neurotoxic lesion model on hindlimb muscle function in freely moving rats.
• To analyze electromyographic (EMG) biomarkers of muscle alterations at different time points post-lesion.
• To provide a dataset for investigating muscle activation parameters and signal processing methods in a PD model.

Main Methods:

• Electromyographic (EMG) recordings were obtained from biceps femoris muscles of control and hemiparkinsonian rats.
• Rats walked on a circular treadmill, with EMG data collected from three to six weeks post-6-OHDA lesion.
• Signal processing techniques were applied to detect muscular contractions and analyze EMG signal properties, including power spectrum density (PSD).

Main Results:

• EMG signal stationarity was established, and effective muscular contractions were identified.
• Analysis of PSD frequency content (mean and median frequencies) showed a progressive decline over time post-lesion.
• This indicates evolving muscle function changes correlated with the progression of the PD model.

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrates progressive alterations in muscle function in a 6-OHDA induced rat model of Parkinson's disease.
• Electromyographic biomarkers reveal changes in muscle activity that correlate with the time elapsed since lesion induction.
• The presented dataset offers valuable insights for future research on muscle activation and EMG analysis in PD models.