Enhanced inhibitory input to triceps brachii in humans with spinal cord injury

Most individuals with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) show increased muscle weakness in the elbow extensor compared to elbow flexor muscles. Although this is a well-known functional deficit, the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. To address this question, we measured the suppression of voluntary electromyographic activity (svEMG; a measurement thought to reflect changes in intracortical inhibition) by applying low-intensity transcranial magnetic stimulation over the arm representation of the primary motor cortex during 10% of isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) into elbow flexion or extension in individuals with and without chronic cervical SCI. We found that the svEMG latency and duration were not different between the biceps and triceps brachii in controls but prolonged in the triceps in individuals with SCI. The svEMG area was larger in the triceps compared to the biceps in both groups and further increased in SCI participants, suggesting a pronounced intracortical inhibitory input during elbow extension. A negative correlation was found between svEMG area and MVCs indicating that control and SCI participants with lower svEMG area had larger MVCs. The svEMG area was not different between 5% and 30% of MVC, making it less probable that differences in muscle strength between groups contributed to our results. These findings support the existence of strong inhibitory input to corticospinal projections controlling elbow extensor compared to flexor muscles, which is more pronounced after chronic cervical SCI.

Key points

• After cervical spinal cord injury (SCI), people often recover function in elbow flexor, but much less in elbow extensor muscles. The neural mechanisms contributing to this difference remain unknown.
• We measured the suppression of voluntary electromyographic activity (svEMG) elicited through low-intensity transcranial magnetic stimulation of the primary motor cortex (assumed to reflect changes in intracortical inhibition) in the biceps and triceps muscles in controls and individuals with cervical chronic incomplete SCI.
• We found increased svEMG area in the triceps compared to the biceps in controls and SCI participants, with this measurement being even more pronounced in the triceps after SCI. The svEMG area correlated with maximal voluntary contraction values in both groups, suggesting the people with lesser inhibition had larger motor output.
• Our results support the presence of strong cortical inhibitory input to corticospinal projections controlling elbow extensor compared to elbow flexors muscles after cervical SCI.