# Large-scale recording of spike train ensembles from muscle fibers during skilled behavior in mice and songbirds

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $75,309

## Abstract

A crucial problem in motor neuroscience is to understand how muscles are activated to produce normal or
pathological motor behavior. However, our understanding of how individual motor units (the muscle fibers
activated by a single motor neuron) pattern their spiking to precisely control behavior is poor due to the
limitations of current electromyographic (EMG) methods, which include fine wires inserted into muscles and,
more recently, cutaneous EMG arrays used to record individual motor units, particularly in human subjects.
However, both wire-based and cutaneous arrays face crucial limitations. Notably, they cannot record the very
small and/or deep muscles that mediate fine motor control, due to tissue damage induced by wire insertion and
by surface array's inability to monitor signals from deeper muscles. Furthermore, surface arrays have limited
use outside of tightly-controlled (e.g. isometric force) tasks in humans, are not appropriate for long-term use in
natural behaviors or in rehabilitative contexts, and perform poorly in animal models. Finally, wire electrodes
typically provide only bulk multiunit recording (rather than single-unit spike trains). In this cross-disciplinary
proposal between an electrophysiologist (Dr. Sober) and an electrical engineer (Dr. Bakir), we propose to fill
this gap by creating a new generation of micro-scale, high channel-count EMG arrays to record massively
parallel single-unit data across many muscles during natural behaviors.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10464591
- **Project number:** 3R01NS109237-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Muhannad  Bakir
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $75,309
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-06-15 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10464591

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10464591, Large-scale recording of spike train ensembles from muscle fibers during skilled behavior in mice and songbirds (3R01NS109237-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10464591. Licensed CC0.

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