Cortical Adaptation to Muscle Fatigue Does Not Alter Early Proprioceptive Processing in Primary Sensorimotor Cortex.
4 affiliations
- 1Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
- 2Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
- 3Center for Neuroplasticity and Pain, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
- 4Wellbeing Services County of Central Finland, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Abstract
Muscle fatigue potentially interferes with proprioceptive afference from peripheral "movement sensors"-the proprioceptors, which may hinder crucial sensorimotor integration and thus movement performance. However, little is known about how muscle fatigue affects cortical processing of proprioceptive afference. Twenty-four healthy volunteers (30.7 ± 6.5 years) participated in the experiment, which included magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings during 2-Hz passive ankle-joint rotations, and fatigue tasks comprised of isometric ankle plantarflexion. Corticokinematic coherence (CKC) between linear foot acceleration and MEG signals was examined before (PRE) and ~3 min after (POST) the fatigue tasks to compare the cortical proprioceptive processing. CKC peaked in the gradiometer pairs above the foot region of the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex in each participant. CKC strength did not show significant difference between PRE and POST at 2 Hz (0.30 ± 0.12 vs. 0.30 ± 0.14, p = 0.981) or its first harmonic at 4 Hz (0.38 ± 0.14 vs. 0.37 ± 0.13, p = 0.724). However, 4-Hz MEG power was ~30% lower in POST than in PRE. Surprisingly, fatigue-induced increase of alpha and beta power was observed bilaterally in SM1 hand regions during the ankle movements. Our results indicate that the early processing of proprioceptive afference from the ankle joint was negligibly affected by muscle fatigue or the effect recovered rapidly. The fatigue elevated alpha and beta power while diminishing neuronal activity at the 4-Hz harmonic frequency, which may reflect a compensatory mechanism for asynchronous proprioceptive afference by enhancing cortical inhibitory control.
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BibTeX
@article{chen2026cortical,
title = {{Cortical Adaptation to Muscle Fatigue Does Not Alter Early Proprioceptive Processing in Primary Sensorimotor Cortex.}},
author = {Junru Chen and Toni Mujunen and Feiyue Li and Riku Nikander and Harri Piitulainen},
journal = {The European journal of neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1111/ejn.70742},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42973078},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Cortical Adaptation to Muscle Fatigue Does Not Alter Early Proprioceptive Processing in Primary Sensorimotor Cortex.
AU - Junru Chen
AU - Toni Mujunen
AU - Feiyue Li
AU - Riku Nikander
AU - Harri Piitulainen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
JO - The European journal of neuroscience
DO - 10.1111/ejn.70742
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42973078
AB - Muscle fatigue potentially interferes with proprioceptive afference from peripheral "movement sensors"-the proprioceptors, which may hinder crucial sensorimotor integration and thus movement performance. However, little is known about how muscle fatigue affects cortical processing of proprioceptive afference. Twenty-four healthy volunteers (30.7 ± 6.5 years) participated in the experiment, which included magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings during 2-Hz passive ankle-joint rotations, and fatigue tasks comprised of isometric ankle plantarflexion. Corticokinematic coherence (CKC) between linear foot acceleration and MEG signals was examined before (PRE) and ~3 min after (POST) the fatigue tasks to compare the cortical proprioceptive processing. CKC peaked in the gradiometer pairs above the foot region of the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex in each participant. CKC strength did not show significant difference between PRE and POST at 2 Hz (0.30 ± 0.12 vs. 0.30 ± 0.14, p = 0.981) or its first harmonic at 4 Hz (0.38 ± 0.14 vs. 0.37 ± 0.13, p = 0.724). However, 4-Hz MEG power was ~30% lower in POST than in PRE. Surprisingly, fatigue-induced increase of alpha and beta power was observed bilaterally in SM1 hand regions during the ankle movements. Our results indicate that the early processing of proprioceptive afference from the ankle joint was negligibly affected by muscle fatigue or the effect recovered rapidly. The fatigue elevated alpha and beta power while diminishing neuronal activity at the 4-Hz harmonic frequency, which may reflect a compensatory mechanism for asynchronous proprioceptive afference by enhancing cortical inhibitory control.
SN - 0953-816X
SN - 1460-9568
ER -