Chiropractic, cortical excitability and BCI

Abstract

Utilizing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocols prior to and after spinal manipulation, alterations in the activity within specific intracortical facilitatory and intracortical inhibitory pathways have been observed to an upper limb muscle (abductor pollicis brevis; APB). This study sought to investigate whether the previously shown motor control changes could be due to alterations in recruitment patterns of the APB motor neuron pool following spinal manipulation. This study also sought to explore whether such neuroplastic changes in motor control observed following spinal manipulation occur for a lower limb muscle (Tibialis anterior, TA), and whether at least in part such changes occur at the cortical level. The preliminary results of this study show that spinal manipulation leads to lasting changes in cortical excitability, as measured by a significantly larger MEPmax for TMS induced input output curves in both the upper and lower limb. These preliminary results also suggest that spinal manipulation can enhance BCI protocols by increasing movement related cortical potential (MRCP) amplitudes.