COMSTIG: Motor Cortex Magnetic Stimulation during Gait

Walking requires coordination between many muscles. This coordination is generated within networks of neurones in the spinal cord.

These networks receive information from the brain, and receive sensory information that is collected by muscles, joints and skin. The networks of neurones in the spinal cord combine this information, and send signals out to muscles to produce coordinated movement.

If a person has a movement disorder, an injury, or is in pain, it affects the way they walk. We know that muscle activity changes. But is this because the brain is sending different signals down to the spinal cord? Or is the brain sending the same information, but it is processed differently by the networks of neurones?

How does this project help?

Here, we bring together a neuroscientist, a movement scientist and an engineer to develop a system that will allow transcranial magnetic stimulation to be delivered to the brain of an individual while they are walking on a treadmill. We will test this system to ensure that the stimulation is delivered to the same part of the brain every time.

What are the outcomes?

This system will let us look at how the brain contributes to muscle activity during walking in healthy individuals, and individuals with a movement disorder, injury, or pain.

Funding

This project is funded by Wellcome Trust.

Lead researcher

Research theme