Structured modulations in high-density EMG patterns from a single muscle enable simultaneous control of natural and extra degrees of freedom
Julien Rossato, Elodie Hinnekens, Daniele Borzelli, Sergio Gurgone, Denise Jennifer Berger, Andrea d’Avella · 2026
Read Structured modulations in high-density EMG patterns from a single muscle enable simultaneous control of natural and extra degrees of freedom by Julien Rossato, Elodie Hinnekens, Daniele Borzelli, Sergio Gurgone, Denise Jennifer Berger, Andrea d’Avella (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13465195.txt.
Description
Julien Rossato and colleagues showed in 2026 that one muscle's surface signals can steer both natural and extra movement directions at once. Motor neurons in one pool may carry several independent inputs, yet tapping them usually needs hard signal decomposition. Fifteen volunteers moved a cursor by hand force while rotating it by shifting patterns from a 64-channel grid on the biceps, without any decomposition step.
Volunteers hit targets in 89% of trials on average, and cursor rotations beat force-only trials in 84% of cases. Pattern shifts stayed distinct from simple amplitude changes, fitting independent neural inputs, though activation shifts may partly explain them. The method opens simpler prosthetic and rehab controls, letting one muscle command an extra degree of freedom alongside its natural job.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Julien Rossato, Elodie Hinnekens, Daniele Borzelli, Sergio Gurgone, Denise Jennifer Berger, Andrea d’Avella |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 62 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |