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Recruitment of muscle synergies is associated with endpoint force fluctuations during multi-directional isometric contractions

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Abstract

It has long been assumed that the human central nervous system uses flexible combinations of several muscle synergies to effortlessly and efficiently control redundant movements. However, whether muscle synergies exist in the neural circuit remains controversial, and it is critical to examine the association between the recruitment pattern of synergies and motor output. In this study, we examined the relationship between the activation of muscle synergies and endpoint force fluctuations in the presence of signal-dependent noise. Subjects performed multi-directional isometric force generations around the right ankle on the sagittal plane. We then extracted muscle synergies from measured electromyogram (EMG) data using nonnegative matrix factorization. As a result, the sum of the activation of muscle synergies was correlated with the endpoint force variability from the desired directions. Furthermore, we determined that the activation trace of each synergy reflected the endpoint force fluctuations using cross-correlation analysis. Therefore, these results suggest that muscle synergies statistically calculated from EMG data should be related to the motor output.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the Descente and Ishimoto Memorial Foundation for the Promotion of Sports Science (M. Kouzaki).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare there are no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Shota Hagio

  2. Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Nihonmatsu-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Shota Hagio & Motoki Kouzaki

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  1. Shota Hagio
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  2. Motoki Kouzaki
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Correspondence to Motoki Kouzaki.

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Hagio, S., Kouzaki, M. Recruitment of muscle synergies is associated with endpoint force fluctuations during multi-directional isometric contractions. Exp Brain Res 233, 1811–1823 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4253-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4253-5

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