Frontiers in Human Neuroscience最新文献

{"title":"A scoping review of music-based digital therapeutics for stress, anxiety, and depression.","authors":"Tara Venkatesan, Andrew M Demetriou, Audrey Hempel, Daniel L Bowling","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1602004","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1602004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rising rates of stress, anxiety, and depression-fueled by rapid sociocultural and economic shifts, digital overexposure, and the lasting impact of COVID-19-are accelerating investment in scalable tools aimed at enhancing resilience and wellbeing. Music-based digital therapeutics (MDTs) hold promise given music's unique ability to modulate core dimensions of health-affect, anxiety, and reward, as well as autonomic and social functioning-through a medium that is universal, intuitive, and increasingly accessible. To assess the current state of MDTs targeting stress, anxiety, and depression in adults, we conducted a scoping review using a modified Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) keyword framework to structure Google search results. Twenty-two commercially available MDTs were identified for inclusion. We organize these MDTs into five principal categories based on underlying treatment strategies: (1) Preference-based music selection; (2) Affective Parameterization; (3) Affect Matching and Compensation; (4) Neural Entrainment; and (5) Biofeedback. We review general evidence supporting each strategy from music neuroscience and therapy research, as well as limited applied research testing specific MDTs. We conclude that, while general evidence supporting musical-based interventions for stress, anxiety, and depression is substantial, evidence for MDTs specifically is presently too limited to draw conclusions about real world effectiveness. Determining whether MDTs are likely to fulfill their potential will require increased focus on rigorous laboratory studies testing specific treatment strategies and randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials conducted in ecologically valid settings. To support progress in this field, we make recommendations to support the sustainable development of MDTs as evidence-based tools to support mental health and wellbeing.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1602004"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13021903/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147573374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Open access individual finger movement dataset with fNIRS.","authors":"Haroon Khan, Hammad Nazeer, Peyman Mirtaheri","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1747655","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1747655","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1747655"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13021636/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147573455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Frontocingulate-parietal-limbic circuits associated with both ruminative brooding and self-regulatory processes.","authors":"Selena Singh, Vibooshitha Thusyanthan, Allison Mizzi, Yarden Levy, Isaac Kinley, Saurabh Bhaskar Shaw, Suzanna Becker","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1731382","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1731382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Ruminative brooding is a transdiagnostic symptom defined as repetitive dwelling on thoughts and emotions, and is linked to emotion dysregulation, maladaptive metacognitive beliefs, and abnormal interoception. The relative contributions of these factors and their neural mechanisms remain unclear. In this exploratory study, we mapped these processes onto directed cross-frequency coupling (CFC) networks using resting-state electroencephalography.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We first identified symptoms of interest for CFC analyses by employing regularized symptom networks, revealing two clusters relevant to brooding: one dominated by interoceptive/mindfulness dimensions and another by metacognitive/emotional dysregulation, with brooding belonging to the latter. We then examined links between representative symptoms from each cluster and resting-state cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) using partial least squares correlation (PLS-C).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Emotional dysregulation and brooding dimensions co-varied with delta-beta PAC (representing a \"brooding/dysregulation\" neural signature), whereas mindfulness symptoms co-varied with beta-gamma and theta-gamma PAC (representing a \"mindfulness/interoception\" neural signature). More specifically, for the brooding/dysregulation signature, prefrontal and cingulate phase activity modulated amplitudes in regions implicated in emotion regulation and interoception. In contrast, the mindfulness/interoception signature reflected coupling within circuits supporting emotion regulation/interoception.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Overall, our results indicated that brooding was more tightly linked to maladaptive metacognitive beliefs and emotional dysregulation than to mindfulness/interoception, consistent with resistance toward one's thoughts and emotions. Neurally, as reflected through multivariate PLS-C covariance patterns, this may be linked to compensatory top-down control from prefrontal and cingulate areas over interoceptive, affective, and self-referential systems, pointing to the potential value of therapies that cultivate self-acceptance and modify maladaptive metacognitive beliefs for reducing rumination.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1731382"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13021775/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147573409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A neuroscientific hypothesis on the physical nature of consciousness.","authors":"Chirapat Ukachoke","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1758344","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1758344","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study addresses a central question in neuroscience: What is the physical nature of consciousness? Taking a neuroscientific approach, the study first establishes working definitions for its principal terms-qualia, consciousness, and information-to specify clearly the entities under investigation. It then analyzes the essential features of these defined terms. Information, in particular, is examined in detail across several aspects, including its carrier, nature, effects, interpretations, and meanings. The study next investigates the essential properties of consciousness and identifies potential entities that could underlie it. Candidate entities are drawn from two groups: physically established non-material entities in the brain, such as electrical fields, magnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, and neural information, and physically unestablished non-material entities proposed in various theoretical models. Each candidate is assessed for whether it can satisfy the required properties of consciousness. The analysis finds that the entity that most parsimoniously meets these criteria, without invoking new forces or physical laws, is neural information. Accordingly, the study proposes the hypothesis that consciousness is a form of neural information, specifically information encoded in the spatiotemporal patterns of electrochemical signaling within certain neural circuits. It presents empirically verifiable predictions derived from this hypothesis, making the hypothesis falsifiable. Further, it identifies a neural mechanism by which some information can manifest phenomenally as consciousness, enabling the occurrence of consciousness in the brain, and another mechanism underlying why this manifestation occurs only from the first-person perspective of some neural circuits. The study then compares its hypothesis and proposed mechanisms with existing theories of consciousness, clarifying how it differs in focus, explanatory scope, and thesis. Broader implications for neuroscience, clinical research, and the possibility of artificial consciousness are discussed, along with limitations of the present framework. Overall, because its evidence and arguments lie entirely within established neuroscience, with no novel entities, forces, or physical laws posited, this study advances a parsimonious and neuroscientifically grounded hypothesis on the physical nature of consciousness.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1758344"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13017804/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147573398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Functional properties of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to primary motor cortex connectivity: a dual-site TMS study.","authors":"Xiang-Ming Lin, Yi-Shan Xue, Yu-Han Liu, Rui Hong, Wan-Rong Xu, Tian-Cheng Li, Jia-Wei Jiang, Ying-Rong Liu, Ying Li, Ben-Guo Wang","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1776794","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1776794","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a crucial role in cognitive-motor integration through its top-down regulation of the primary motor cortex (M1). However, the functional lateralization of the left and right DLPFC and the differences between intra-hemispheric and inter-hemispheric regulation of M1, particularly in populations with brain injury, remain controversial and insufficiently studied.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objective: &lt;/strong&gt;This study aimed to systematically achieve the following four objectives using a dual-site paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technique: (1) to evaluate the integrated regulatory effects of bilateral DLPFC on M1; (2) to compare the differences in regulatory effects between ipsilateral and contralateral DLPFC; (3) to analyze the impact of functional lateralization of the left and right DLPFC on their regulation of M1; (4) to investigate the effects of brain injury on the DLPFC-M1 regulatory pathway by comparing healthy participants and stroke patients.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods: &lt;/strong&gt;A total of 30 right-handed participants were enrolled, including 20 stroke patients in the recovery phase (divided into left and right lesion groups) and 10 healthy volunteers. These three participant groups were tested under conditions that varied the targeted motor cortex (M1) side, yielding four key experimental conditions for analysis. Accordingly, a paired-pulse TMS paradigm was employed. Following a conditioning stimulus (CS) applied to the left or right DLPFC, a test stimulus (TS) was delivered to the ipsilateral or contralateral M1 after an inter-stimulus interval of 20 ms. The amplitude of the motor evoked potential (MEP) was recorded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;In experiments targeting the left M1, both the healthy group (Experiment 1) and the patient group (Experiment 3) exhibited significant regulatory effects (&lt;i&gt;χ&lt;/i&gt; &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; = 12.2, &lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.002; &lt;i&gt;χ&lt;/i&gt; &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; = 9.6, &lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.008). Post-hoc analysis revealed that, compared to baseline, both ipsilateral DLPFC (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.011; &lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.022) and contralateral DLPFC (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.005; &lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.022) significantly enhanced M1 excitability, with no significant difference between the two (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 1.000). However, in experiments targeting the right M1 across all groups (Experiments 2 and 4), no significant regulatory effect of DLPFC was observed (&lt;i&gt;χ&lt;/i&gt; &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; = 0.2, &lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.905).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion: &lt;/strong&gt;This study confirms that, at rest, the bilateral DLPFC exerts a stable and non-specific facilitatory regulation on the left M1. This effect persists in the affected M1 of stroke patients, suggesting plasticity in the relevant pathways after injury. The negative findings for the right M1 reveal a lateralization characteristic in DLPFC-M1 regulation. These results provide an important basis for elucidating the physiological mechanisms of cognitive-motor circuits and f","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1776794"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13013401/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147520438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Art therapy and emotional pain: a scoping review of physiological and biological measures.","authors":"Shokoufeh Moezzi, Olga Korostynska, Mimmu Rankanen, Haroon Khan, Parisa Gazerani","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1736930","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1736930","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The increasing prevalence of mental health disorders and emotional pain poses a critical challenge to social well-being and healthcare equity. Visual art therapy is well established as a clinical and nonclinical intervention for emotional pain that promotes self-regulation and psychological insight. However, there is a lack of research that clearly maps the previous studies that use both subjective and objective measures to examine the impact of art therapy on emotional pain.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This scoping review focuses on studies that use brain or physiological measurement in investigating the effect of art therapy on emotional pain in healthy adults. A systematic search of academic databases and scholarly information systems MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Engineering Village, Web of Science, Academic Search Ultimate, and Epistemonikos was conducted in May 2025. It identified 4,734 relevant records, of which 12 full texts were screened, and 6 studies met the inclusion criteria.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Evidence indicates that visual art therapy can improve mood and reduce stress, anxiety, fear, and sadness, also modulating activity across multiple brain regions. Overall, fNIRS studies reported increased activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after art therapy, and studies on HR, skin conductance, salivary cortisol, sAA, IL-6, CRP, and RSA illustrated its positive effects in reducing stress, anxiety, and sad mood.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>However, existing research has primarily addressed emotional pain, with no studies assessing its impact on physical pain in healthy populations using objective physiological or biological measures, showing that there is a gap for assessing physical pain improvement by art therapy. These findings highlight both the therapeutic potential of visual art interventions and the need for further research to explore their effects on physical pain.</p><p><strong>Systematic review registration: </strong>This review was registered on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/935kw, date created and registered: 24. 07. 2025).</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1736930"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13013050/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147520667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Proceedings of the 13th annual deep brain stimulation think tank: the evolving landscape.","authors":"Chance R Fleeting, Eduardo M Moraud, Kamil Uğurbil, Doris D Wang, Wolf-Julian Neumann, Andrea A Kühn, Valerie Voon, Victor Pikov, Marie-Laure Welter, Michael D Fox, John D Rolston, Mahsa Malekmohammadi, Yagna J Pathak, Lyndahl M Himes, David Greene, Abbey S Holt-Becker, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Alexander W Charney, Amanda R Merner, Martijn Figee, Katherine W Scangos, Timothy Denison, Kent Leyde, Aysegul Gunduz, Helen M Bronte-Stewart, James C Beck, Nora Vanegas-Arroyave, Marta San Luciano, Norbert Brüggemann, Kelly D Foote, Michael S Okun, Joshua K Wong","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1770451","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1770451","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Think Tank XIII was held September 2-4th, 2025, in Gainesville, Florida, at the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at the University of Florida. The theme was \"The Evolving Landscape of DBS: New Indications, New Goals.\" This theme was a continuation of the DBS Think Tank XI and XII, which were focused on emerging technology and pushing the horizon of indications. Since its founding in 2012, the DBS Think Tank has provided a global forum for leading clinicians, engineers, and researchers in both in industry and academia to present, discuss, and debate the current state of DBS technologies as well as to consider important logistics and ethical challenges. Over the course of three days, members of each panel presented and facilitated discussions on the cutting edge of DBS research. The keynote speaker was Dr. Kamil Uğurbil of the University of Minnesota, who led the first group of researchers to demonstrate the feasibility of imaging the human brain using fMRI technology and who was a pioneer in the development of high-field human MRI scanning. Nobel laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner, from the University of California, San Francisco, used the story of the discovery of prions to demonstrate the power of pursuing a finding even when the idea conflicted with the prevailing state of the field. The think tank was divided into sections, including: Next Generation Neuromodulation for Gait, Brain Networks and Neuromodulation, Neuroscience & Society, Interventional Psychiatry & Behavior, Devices for Closing the Loop, Physiology & Closing the Loop, and A Roadmap for Genetics & Neuromodulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1770451"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13012979/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147520483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The night shift brain: functional network reorganization in sleep-deprived medical staff.","authors":"Zhen Zeng, Dingbo Guo, Liuheng Liu, Fangyuan Ou, Tingting Du, Lisha Nie, Hua Yang, Cong Peng","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1757604","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1757604","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Medical staff frequently experience sleep deprivation, impacting both their health and patient care quality. Understanding brain network changes under sleep deprivation can guide preventive strategies. This study aims to determine how total sleep deprivation (TSD) alters brain network topology in medical professionals.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using graph-theory analysis of resting-state fMRI data from 36 medical staff, we assessed global and local brain network properties following TSD and normal sleep (rested wakefulness, RW), examining topological changes and their correlation with cognitive performance.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Small-world properties were present in both conditions, but the TSD condition showed higher clustering coefficients (<i>p</i> = 0.044). Key nodal changes included increased degree centrality in the right superior medial frontal gyrus (<i>p</i> = 0.0006) and decreased nodal efficiency in the left fusiform gyrus (<i>p</i> = 0.0004). Using the right superior medial frontal gyrus as ROI, enhanced functional connectivity (zFC) was observed in multiple bilateral frontal/temporal regions (peak <i>t</i> > 4.5). These topological changes correlated with cognitive deficits: reduced Digit Symbol Test (DST) scores (<i>p</i> < 0.001), prolonged Number Connection Test-A (NCT-A) and Line Tracing Test (LTT) completion times (<i>p</i> < 0.05), while increased clustering coefficients (Cp) positively correlated with NCT-A/SDT performance changes (<i>r</i> = 0.341-0.411, <i>p</i> < 0.05). And older staff exhibited greater vulnerability in global network efficiency and path length (<i>r</i> = -0.352, <i>r</i> = 0.390, <i>p</i> < 0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>By identifying key brain network nodes affected by TSD, this study provides insights into neural adaptations under TSD, offering an evidence-based framework for developing both therapeutic interventions and preventive strategies to mitigate cognitive and health impacts in high-risk populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1757604"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13013376/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147520468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lumbar enlargement spinal cord stimulation for severe spasticity and motor function improvement after traumatic brain injury: a case report.","authors":"Di Wu, Yaping Wang, Bo Hong","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1754152","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1754152","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This case report describes the successful use of epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in managing severe, refractory spasticity in a 58-year-old male following traumatic brain injury. Despite nearly 8 months of conventional pharmacotherapy and rehabilitation for his tetraplegia, his lower-limb spasticity persisted at Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) grade 3, severely impeding functional recovery. After implantation of a trial and subsequently permanent SCS system at the lumbar enlargement, muscle tone decreased to MAS grade 2 within 48 h, alongside improvements in muscle strength. Over 6 months, stimulation led to a marked reduction in the frequency and severity of spastic episodes. This spasticity relief fundamentally improved the patient's sleep quality and enabled significant functional gains, including assisted standing and pedal stepping. This case demonstrates the positive effect of SCS for a condition often resistant to standard treatments. The results support re-evaluating SCS's therapeutic potential for refractory spasticity caused by TBI and other central nervous system disorders, potentially through mechanisms involving the modulation of spinal cord excitability.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1754152"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13013298/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147520475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors influencing corticomuscular coherence for axial and lower limb musculature in a healthy population: a scoping review.","authors":"Nadim Fakhry, Pouya Rabiei, Martine Gagnon, Martin Simoneau, Hugo Massé-Alarie","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1708259","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fnhum.2026.1708259","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Corticomuscular coherence (CMC) quantifies the frequency-specific coupling between cortical and muscular activity and is increasingly used to probe motor-control mechanisms. However, the factors that consistently influence CMC in axial and lower-limb muscles remain unclear.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>The objective of this study is to map and critically describe experimental factors and methodological choices that have been studied and their potential influence on CMC of axial and lower limb muscles measured in healthy humans.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. CINAHL, MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, and Web of Science were searched from the date of inception to March 5th, 2024. Eligible studies that (i) computed CMC, (ii) recorded cortical activity with EEG or MEG, (iii) analyzed trunk or lower limb EMG, and (iv) compared CMC across experimental conditions or participant groups were included. Two reviewers independently screened records, extracted demographic, neurophysiological, task, and signal-processing variables, and grouped studies by the factor examined; third reviewer resolved discrepancies. Results were synthesized descriptively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Four factors showed the most consistent influence on CMC: (1) Age: younger adults exhibit higher CMC than older adults (2) Muscle-specificity: the tibialis anterior (TA) displays stronger CMC than other axial or lower-limb muscles; (3) Contraction type: isotonic and eccentric/quasi-isotonic contractions elicit greater CMC than isometric contractions; (4) Athletic status: non-athletes demonstrate higher CMC than trained individuals. The effects of fatigue, contraction intensity, posture, or walking tasks were inconsistent. Methodologically, most studies employed EEG (single Cz channel) and rectified EMG; MEG, source localization, and longitudinal approaches were seldom used.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Current evidence indicates that participant characteristics (age, athletic status) and task parameters (muscle tested, contraction type) can impact CMC, but heterogeneity in study design and analysis hampers direct comparison and causal inference. Future research should adopt longitudinal designs, standardized protocols, and advanced source localization techniques to clarify the mechanisms governing CMC in axial and lower-limb musculature.</p>","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"20 ","pages":"1708259"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13012959/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147520450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}