Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data

Spinal reflex circuitry-based controllers have shown promising capabilities in controlling the biomechanics of locomotion in simulation. Studies have been done to tune or identify reflex circuitry from imposed objectives, such as metabolic energy efficiency, maintaining balance or mimicking experime...

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Main Authors: Huawei Wang, Arvid Q. L. Keemink, Massimo Sartori
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10843272/
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author Huawei Wang
Arvid Q. L. Keemink
Massimo Sartori
author_facet Huawei Wang
Arvid Q. L. Keemink
Massimo Sartori
author_sort Huawei Wang
collection DOAJ
description Spinal reflex circuitry-based controllers have shown promising capabilities in controlling the biomechanics of locomotion in simulation. Studies have been done to tune or identify reflex circuitry from imposed objectives, such as metabolic energy efficiency, maintaining balance or mimicking experimental data. However, in those works, the reflex structure was predefined by the authors. This may limit the generalizing capabilities of such circuits and prevent a better understanding of the dominant reflex loops in human locomotion. In this work we propose an identification framework that can identify personalized sparse-structure reflex circuitry directly from experimental data. This is achieved by first performing muscle model personalization via optimization and consequently extensive model regularization when optimizing a densely connected neural reflex network. Trajectory optimization is used in both steps, namely direct collocation formulated as a non-linear program. Multi-speed walking and running data of five subjects was used to test the framework. Results show that personalized sparse reflex circuitry was identified that show exceptional torque and muscle activation reproduction for multiple walking speeds with a speed-independent, but phase-dependent, reflex network. Furthermore, similar sparse structures were found between subjects, but different structures between walking and running gait. However, due to the use of data of unperturbed locomotion, the actual plausibility of the found circuitry remains an open question. The controllers use slightly more reflex gain parameters than those chosen and designed in other studies, but the benefit of our method is that the structures were found automatically.
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spelling doaj-art-fcde6ad409e14d13abb6aaa82a68cf552025-01-30T00:00:04ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1534-43201558-02102025-01-013359860910.1109/TNSRE.2025.352997610843272Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion DataHuawei Wang0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6034-2905Arvid Q. L. Keemink1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7366-2898Massimo Sartori2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0930-6535Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsSpinal reflex circuitry-based controllers have shown promising capabilities in controlling the biomechanics of locomotion in simulation. Studies have been done to tune or identify reflex circuitry from imposed objectives, such as metabolic energy efficiency, maintaining balance or mimicking experimental data. However, in those works, the reflex structure was predefined by the authors. This may limit the generalizing capabilities of such circuits and prevent a better understanding of the dominant reflex loops in human locomotion. In this work we propose an identification framework that can identify personalized sparse-structure reflex circuitry directly from experimental data. This is achieved by first performing muscle model personalization via optimization and consequently extensive model regularization when optimizing a densely connected neural reflex network. Trajectory optimization is used in both steps, namely direct collocation formulated as a non-linear program. Multi-speed walking and running data of five subjects was used to test the framework. Results show that personalized sparse reflex circuitry was identified that show exceptional torque and muscle activation reproduction for multiple walking speeds with a speed-independent, but phase-dependent, reflex network. Furthermore, similar sparse structures were found between subjects, but different structures between walking and running gait. However, due to the use of data of unperturbed locomotion, the actual plausibility of the found circuitry remains an open question. The controllers use slightly more reflex gain parameters than those chosen and designed in other studies, but the benefit of our method is that the structures were found automatically.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10843272/Human locomotionspinal reflexsparse structureMSK personalizationdirect collocation
spellingShingle Huawei Wang
Arvid Q. L. Keemink
Massimo Sartori
Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Human locomotion
spinal reflex
sparse structure
MSK personalization
direct collocation
title Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data
title_full Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data
title_fullStr Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data
title_full_unstemmed Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data
title_short Establishing Personalized and Sparse Spinal Reflex Circuitry From Locomotion Data
title_sort establishing personalized and sparse spinal reflex circuitry from locomotion data
topic Human locomotion
spinal reflex
sparse structure
MSK personalization
direct collocation
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10843272/
work_keys_str_mv AT huaweiwang establishingpersonalizedandsparsespinalreflexcircuitryfromlocomotiondata
AT arvidqlkeemink establishingpersonalizedandsparsespinalreflexcircuitryfromlocomotiondata
AT massimosartori establishingpersonalizedandsparsespinalreflexcircuitryfromlocomotiondata