title: Innervation zones of fasciculating motor units: observations by a linear electrode array.
abstract: This study examines the innervation zone (IZ) in the biceps brachii muscle in healthy subjects and those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using a 20-channel linear electromyogram (EMG) electrode array. Raster plots of individual waveform potentials were studied to estimate the motor unit IZ. While this work mainly focused on fasciculation potentials (FPs), a limited number of motor unit potentials (MUPs) from voluntary activity of 12 healthy and seven ALS subjects were also examined. Abnormal propagation of MUPs and scattered IZs were observed in fasciculating units, compared with voluntarily activated MUPs in healthy and ALS subjects. These findings can be related to muscle fiber reinnervation following motor neuron degeneration in ALS and the different origin sites of FPs compared with voluntary MUPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, IL, USA ; Single Motor Unit Lab, Sensory Motor Performance Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Faezeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jahanmiri-Nezhad
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Veterans Administration Medical Center Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Barkhaus
authors.affiliation: Single Motor Unit Lab, Sensory Motor Performance Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA ; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: William Z
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: Rymer
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Texas Health Science Center and TIRR Memorial Hermann Research Center Houston, TX, USA ; Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: ALS; fasciculation potentials; innervation zone; linear array EMG electrode; motor unit potentials; reinnervation