Averaged EMGs were recorded from the elbow- and shoulder-operating muscles in 10 adult men during parafrontal slow test movements of the hand performed within the horizontal plane. The movements between the left and right end-point positions were carried out with a constant 4 cm/sec velocity in both directions consequently; two identical isotonic loads (10.2 N) were applied to the hand along the rightward and leftward movement traces (Fr and Fl) with respect to the subject’s body. The elbow and shoulder flexors demonstrated a synergic unification, reacting predominantly to the Fr loads; a similar synergy was manifested by the extensors of both joints in their reactions to the Fl loads. Under the action of the corresponding loads, EMGs of both flexor and extensor muscle groups showed strong hysteresis (counterclockwise and clockwise loops, respectively). The muscles acting as agonists for a given direction of loading (flexors for the Fr loads, extensors for the Fl loads) participated also in a co-contraction mode as antagonists in the movements fulfilled under oppositely directed loads; the direction of hysteresis loops was reversed in this case, and their amplitude decreased. The obtained results allow us to conclude that hysteresis properties of muscle contraction and the related characteristics of signal transmission in the motor control system lead to strong hysteresis-associated modifications of central commands coming to the muscles in various movement tasks.
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Vereshchaka, I.V., Gorkovenko, A.V., Lehedza, O.V. et al. EMG Patterns of the Elbow- and Shoulder-Operating Muscles in Slow Parafrontal Upper Limb Movements under Isotonic Loading. Neurophysiology 50, 466–474 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-019-09779-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-019-09779-8