Constraints upon Learning Novel Muscle Activation Patterns after Virtual Tendon Transfer
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1
The University of Queensland, Human Movement Studies, Australia
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2
Université Bordeaux Segalen, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d'Aquitaine, France
To produce a given force, the central nervous system (CNS) appears to share the load optimally between multiple muscles. However, how this is achieved and to what extent this behavior is constrained by the structure of the CSN is unknown. One way to probe this is to change the biomechanics at muscle level and test whether the nervous system is able to generate new and unusual muscle coordination patterns that are optimized for the novel biomechanics. We recently developed a virtual biomechanics technique that enables reconstruction of forces produced at the wrist joint in real time from surface electromyographic recordings. We used this technique in a previous study to test the CNS response to a range of novel wrist biomechanics, including, virtual elimination of a muscle, addition of signal dependent noise to a muscle, and the simulation of the biomechanics of a different forearm posture. However, instead of a re-optimization of the muscle activation patterns for the novel biomechanics, we found that even after ~ 1.5 h of practice, the recorded muscle activities were better described by a linear scaling of original muscle patterns. Here, we probed more dramatic alteration of biomechanics that changed the arrangement of muscles and their corresponding functional relationships, applied over a longer period of practice spanning an entire day. For instance, by switching the pulling directions of two flexor muscles, we simulated a condition in which muscles that normally act only as antagonists were required to act as synergists to produce force in certain directions. Task performance, calculated as the minimal distance between the aimed targets and the subjects' force trajectory, improved dramatically by the end of the experiment for all subjects. This illustrates that, when it is essential for task success, the CNS can learn to generate muscle coordination patterns that depart substantially from those habitually used over the course of a few hours.
Keywords:
Biomechanics,
motor control,
reaching movements,
Sensorimotor transformation,
muscle coordination,
Virtual surgery
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Motor Behaviour
Citation:
Jahanabadi
H,
Carroll
T,
Cresswell
A and
De Rugy
A
(2015). Constraints upon Learning Novel Muscle Activation Patterns after Virtual Tendon Transfer.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00282
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Aymar De Rugy, The University of Queensland, Human Movement Studies, Brisbane, Australia, aymar@hms.uq.edu.au