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Updated: Aug 23, 2025

Assessment of Neuromuscular Function Using Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation
Published on: September 13, 2015
A High-Strength Neuromuscular System That Implements Reflexes as Controlled by a Multiquadrant Artificial Efferent
Yao Ni1,2, Lu Liu1,2, Jiaqi Liu1,2
1Institute of Optoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Materials, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China.
Abstract:
We demonstrate an artificial efferent nerve that distinguishes environment-responsive conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, i.e., hand-retraction reflex and muscle memory, respectively. These reflex modes are immediately switchable by altering the polarity of charge carriers in a parallel-channeled artificial synapse; this ability emulates multiplexed neurotransmission of different neurotransmitters to form glutamine-induced short-term plasticity and acetylcholine-induced long-term plasticity. This is the successful control of high-strength artificial muscle fibers by using an artificial efferent nerve to form a neuromuscular system that can realize curvature and force simultaneously and in which all these aspects far surpass currently available neuromuscular systems. Furthermore, the special four-quadrant information-processing mechanism of our artificial efferent nerve allows complex application extensions, i.e., relative-position tracking of sound sources, immediate switchable learning modes between fast information processing and long-term memory, and high-accuracy pattern cognition. This work is a step toward development of human-compatible artificial neuromuscular systems.
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