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Castellote JM, Kofler M, Mayr A. The benefit of knowledge: postural response modulation by foreknowledge of equilibrium perturbation in an upper limb task. Eur J Appl Physiol 2024; 124:975-991. [PMID: 37755580 PMCID: PMC10879248 DOI: 10.1007/s00421-023-05323-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 09/28/2023]
Abstract
For whole-body sway patterns, a compound motor response following an external stimulus may comprise reflexes, postural adjustments (anticipatory or compensatory), and voluntary muscular activity. Responses to equilibrium destabilization may depend on both motor set and a subject`s expectation of the disturbing stimulus. To disentangle these influences on lower limb responses, we studied a model in which subjects (n = 14) were suspended in the air, without foot support, and performed a fast unilateral wrist extension (WE) in response to a passive knee flexion (KF) delivered by a robot. To characterize the responses, electromyographic activity of rectus femoris and reactive leg torque was obtained bilaterally in a series of trials, with or without the requirement of WE (motor set), and/or beforehand information about the upcoming velocity of KF (subject`s expectation). Some fast-velocity trials resulted in StartReact responses, which were used to subclassify leg responses. When subjects were uninformed about the upcoming KF, large rectus femoris responses concurred with a postural reaction in conditions without motor task, and with both postural reaction and postural adjustment when WE was required. WE in response to a low-volume acoustic signal elicited no postural adjustments. When subjects were informed about KF velocity and had to perform WE, large rectus femoris responses corresponded to anticipatory postural adjustment rather than postural reaction. In conclusion, when subjects are suspended in the air and have to respond with WE, the prepared motor set includes anticipatory postural adjustments if KF velocity is known, and additional postural reactions if KF velocity is unknown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan M Castellote
- Radiology, Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Markus Kofler
- Department of Neurology, Hochzirl Hospital, Zirl, Austria
| | - Andreas Mayr
- Department of Neurology, Hochzirl Hospital, Zirl, Austria
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2
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Pierrieau E, Charissou C, Vernazza-Martin S, Pageaux B, Lepers R, Amarantini D, Fautrelle L. Intermuscular coherence reveals that affective emotional pictures modulate neural control mechanisms during the initiation of arm pointing movements. Front Hum Neurosci 2024; 17:1273435. [PMID: 38249573 PMCID: PMC10799348 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1273435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Several studies in psychology provided compelling evidence that emotions significantly impact motor control. Yet, these evidences mostly rely on behavioral investigations, whereas the underlying neurophysiological processes remain poorly understood. Methods Using a classical paradigm in motor control, we tested the impact of affective pictures associated with positive, negative or neutral valence on the kinematics and patterns of muscle activations of arm pointing movements performed from a standing position. The hand reaction and movement times were measured and electromyography (EMG) was used to measure the activities from 10 arm, leg and trunk muscles that are involved in the postural maintenance and arm displacement in pointing movements. Intermuscular coherence (IMC) between pairs of muscles was computed to measure changes in patterns of muscle activations related to the emotional stimuli. Results The hand movement time increased when an emotional picture perceived as unpleasant was presented as compared to when the emotional picture was perceived as pleasant. When an unpleasant emotional picture was presented, beta (β, 15-35 Hz) and gamma (γ, 35-60 Hz) IMC decreased in the recorded pairs of postural muscles during the initiation of pointing movements. Moreover, a linear relationship between the magnitude of the intermuscular coherence in the pairs of posturo-focal muscles and the hand movement time was found in the unpleasant scenarios. Discussion These findings reveal that emotional stimuli can significantly affect the content of the motor command sent by the central nervous system to muscles when performing voluntary goal-directed movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emeline Pierrieau
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
- Aquitaine Institute for Cognitive and Integrative Neuroscience (INCIA), Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Camille Charissou
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
- Institut National Universitaire Champollion, EIAP, Département STAPS, Rodez, France
| | - Sylvie Vernazza-Martin
- Université Paris Nanterre, UFR-STAPS, Nanterre, France
- Laboratoire des interactions Cognition, Action, Émotion - LICAÉ, UFR STAPS, Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Benjamin Pageaux
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM), Montréal, QC, Canada
- École de kinésiologie et des sciences de l'activité physique (EKSAP), Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche sur le cerveau et l'apprentissage (CIRCA), Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Romuald Lepers
- CAPS UMR1093, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Faculté des Sciences du Sport, Université de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - David Amarantini
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
| | - Lilian Fautrelle
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
- Institut National Universitaire Champollion, EIAP, Département STAPS, Rodez, France
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Garnier YM, Hilt PM, Sirandre C, Ballay Y, Lepers R, Paizis C. Quantifying Paddling Kinematics through Muscle Activation and Whole Body Coordination during Maximal Sprints of Different Durations on a Kayak Ergometer: A Pilot Study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:2430. [PMID: 36767796 PMCID: PMC9915061 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20032430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2022] [Revised: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Paddling technique and stroke kinematics are important performance factors in flatwater sprint kayaking and entail significant energetic demands and a high strength from the muscles of the trunk and upper limbs. The various distances completed (from 200 m to 1000 m) require the athletes to optimize their pacing strategy, to maximize power output distribution throughout the race. This study aimed to characterize paddling technique and stroke kinematics during two maximal sprints of different duration. Nine nationally-trained participants (2 females, age: 18 ± 3 years; BMI: 22.2 ± 2.0 Kg m-1) performed 40 s and 4 min sprints at maximal intensity on a kayak ergometer. The main findings demonstrated a significantly greater mean stroke power (237 ± 80 W vs. 170 ± 48 W; p < 0.013) and rate (131 ± 8 spm vs. 109 ± 7 spm; p < 0.001) during the 40 s sprint compared to the 4 min sprint. Athletes used an all-out strategy for the 40 s exercise and a parabolic-shape strategy during the 4 min exercise. Despite the different strategies implemented and the higher muscular activation during the 40 s sprint, no change in paddling technique and body coordination occurred during the sprints. The findings of the present study suggest that the athletes constructed a well-defined profile that was not affected by fatigue, despite a decrease in power output during the all-out strategy. In addition, they regulated their paddling kinematics during the longer exercises, with no change in paddling technique and body coordination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y. M. Garnier
- EA3920 Prognostic Factors and Regulatory Factors of Cardiac and Vascular Pathologies, University of Franche-Comté, 25000 Besançon, France
- INSERM 1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne, 21000 Dijon, France
| | - P. M. Hilt
- INSERM 1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne, 21000 Dijon, France
| | - C. Sirandre
- INSERM 1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne, 21000 Dijon, France
| | - Y. Ballay
- INSERM 1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne, 21000 Dijon, France
| | - R. Lepers
- INSERM 1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne, 21000 Dijon, France
| | - C. Paizis
- INSERM 1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne, 21000 Dijon, France
- Centre for Performance Expertise, Faculté des Sciences du Sport, BP 27 877, Université de Bourgogne, 21078 Dijon, France
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Chiovetto E, Salatiello A, d'Avella A, Giese MA. Toward a unifying framework for the modeling and identification of motor primitives. Front Comput Neurosci 2022; 16:926345. [PMID: 36172054 PMCID: PMC9510628 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2022.926345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A large body of evidence suggests that human and animal movements, despite their apparent complexity and flexibility, are remarkably structured. Quantitative analyses of various classes of motor behaviors consistently identify spatial and temporal features that are invariant across movements. Such invariant features have been observed at different levels of organization in the motor system, including the electromyographic, kinematic, and kinetic levels, and are thought to reflect fixed modules-named motor primitives-that the brain uses to simplify the construction of movement. However, motor primitives across space, time, and organization levels are often described with ad-hoc mathematical models that tend to be domain-specific. This, in turn, generates the need to use model-specific algorithms for the identification of both the motor primitives and additional model parameters. The lack of a comprehensive framework complicates the comparison and interpretation of the results obtained across different domains and studies. In this work, we take the first steps toward addressing these issues, by introducing a unifying framework for the modeling and identification of qualitatively different classes of motor primitives. Specifically, we show that a single model, the anechoic mixture model, subsumes many popular classes of motor primitive models. Moreover, we exploit the flexibility of the anechoic mixture model to develop a new class of identification algorithms based on the Fourier-based Anechoic Demixing Algorithm (FADA). We validate our framework by identifying eight qualitatively different classes of motor primitives from both simulated and experimental data. We show that, compared to established model-specific algorithms for the identification of motor primitives, our flexible framework reaches overall comparable and sometimes superior reconstruction performance. The identification framework is publicly released as a MATLAB toolbox (FADA-T, https://tinyurl.com/compsens) to facilitate the identification and comparison of different motor primitive models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Chiovetto
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alessandro Salatiello
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andrea d'Avella
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
- Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Martin A. Giese
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Souza L, Lustosa L, Silva AEL, Martins JV, Pozzo T, Vargas CD. Kinematic Changes in the Uninjured Limb After a Traumatic Brachial Plexus Injury. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:777776. [PMID: 34955793 PMCID: PMC8696281 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.777776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Traumatic brachial plexus injury (TBPI) typically causes sensory, motor and autonomic deficits of the affected upper limb. Recent studies have suggested that a unilateral TBPI can also affect the cortical representations associated to the uninjured limb. Objective: To investigate the kinematic features of the uninjured upper limb in participants with TBPI. Methods: Eleven participants with unilateral TBPI and twelve healthy controls matched in gender, age and anthropometric characteristics were recruited. Kinematic parameters collected from the index finger marker were measured while participants performed a free-endpoint whole-body reaching task and a cup-to-mouth task with the uninjured upper limb in a standing position. Results: For the whole-body reaching task, lower time to peak velocity (p = 0.01), lower peak of velocity (p = 0.003), greater movement duration (p = 0.04) and shorter trajectory length (p = 0.01) were observed in the TBPI group compared to the control group. For the cup-to-mouth task, only a lower time to peak velocity was found for the TBPI group compared to the control group (p = 0.02). Interestingly, no differences between groups were observed for the finger endpoint height parameter in either of the tasks. Taken together, these results suggest that TBPI leads to a higher cost for motor planning when it comes to movements of the uninjured limb as compared to healthy participants. This cost is even higher in a task with a greater postural balance challenge. Conclusion: This study expands the current knowledge on bilateral sensorimotor alterations after unilateral TBPI and should guide rehabilitation after a peripheral injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lidiane Souza
- Laboratório de Neurobiologia do Movimento, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Núcleo de Pesquisa em Neurociências e Reabilitação, Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Luiggi Lustosa
- Laboratório de Neurobiologia do Movimento, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Núcleo de Pesquisa em Neurociências e Reabilitação, Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Ana Elisa Lemos Silva
- Núcleo de Pesquisa em Neurociências e Reabilitação, Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - José Vicente Martins
- Núcleo de Pesquisa em Neurociências e Reabilitação, Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Thierry Pozzo
- INSERM UMR 1093-CAPS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Dijon, France
| | - Claudia D Vargas
- Laboratório de Neurobiologia do Movimento, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Núcleo de Pesquisa em Neurociências e Reabilitação, Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto - Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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6
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Stamenkovic A, Ting LH, Stapley PJ. Evidence for constancy in the modularity of trunk muscle activity preceding reaching: implications for the role of preparatory postural activity. J Neurophysiol 2021; 126:1465-1477. [PMID: 34587462 PMCID: PMC8782652 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00093.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Revised: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Postural muscle activity precedes voluntary movements of the upper limbs. The traditional view of this activity is that it anticipates perturbations to balance caused by the movement of a limb. However, findings from reach-based paradigms have shown that postural adjustments can initiate center of mass displacement for mobility rather than minimize its displacement for stability. Within this context, altering reaching distance beyond the base of support would place increasing constraints on equilibrium during stance. If the underlying composition of anticipatory postural activity is linked to stability, coordination between muscles (i.e., motor modules) may evolve differently as equilibrium constraints increase. We analyzed the composition of motor modules in functional trunk muscles as participants performed multidirectional reaching movements to targets within and beyond the arm's length. Bilateral trunk and reaching arm muscle activity were recorded. Despite different trunk requirements necessary for successful movement, and the changing biomechanical (i.e., postural) constraints that accompany alterations in reach distance, nonnegative matrix factorization identified functional motor modules derived from preparatory trunk muscle activity that shared common features. Relative similarity in modular weightings (i.e., composition) and spatial activation profiles that reflect movement goals across tasks necessitating differing levels of trunk involvement provides evidence that preparatory postural adjustments are linked to the same task priorities (i.e., movement generation rather than stability).NEW & NOTEWORTHY Reaching within and beyond arm's length places different task constraints upon the required trunk motion necessary for successful movement execution. The identification of constant modular features, including functional muscle weightings and spatial tuning, lend support to the notion that preparatory postural adjustments of the trunk are tied to the same task priorities driving mobility, regardless of the future postural constraints.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Stamenkovic
- Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
- Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
| | - Lena H Ting
- Walter H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech College of Engineering, Emory School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
- Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
| | - Paul J Stapley
- Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
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7
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Bigand F, Prigent E, Berret B, Braffort A. Decomposing spontaneous sign language into elementary movements: A principal component analysis-based approach. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0259464. [PMID: 34714862 PMCID: PMC8555838 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Sign Language (SL) is a continuous and complex stream of multiple body movement features. That raises the challenging issue of providing efficient computational models for the description and analysis of these movements. In the present paper, we used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to decompose SL motion into elementary movements called principal movements (PMs). PCA was applied to the upper-body motion capture data of six different signers freely producing discourses in French Sign Language. Common PMs were extracted from the whole dataset containing all signers, while individual PMs were extracted separately from the data of individual signers. This study provides three main findings: (1) although the data were not synchronized in time across signers and discourses, the first eight common PMs contained 94.6% of the variance of the movements; (2) the number of PMs that represented 94.6% of the variance was nearly the same for individual as for common PMs; (3) the PM subspaces were highly similar across signers. These results suggest that upper-body motion in unconstrained continuous SL discourses can be described through the dynamic combination of a reduced number of elementary movements. This opens up promising perspectives toward providing efficient automatic SL processing tools based on heavy mocap datasets, in particular for automatic recognition and generation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Félix Bigand
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LISN, Orsay, France
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Bastien Berret
- Université Paris-Saclay, CIAMS, Institut Universitaire de France, Orsay, France
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8
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Emanuele M, Nazzaro G, Marini M, Veronesi C, Boni S, Polletta G, D'Ausilio A, Fadiga L. Motor synergies: Evidence for a novel motor signature in autism spectrum disorder. Cognition 2021; 213:104652. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Revised: 02/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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9
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Callegari B, Kubicki A, Saunier G, Duarte MB, Almeida GCDS, Alves BMO, Amorim CF, Garcez DR, Souza GDS, Mourey F. Postural Adjustments and Kinematic Index Finger Features in Frail Older Adults under Different Equilibrium Constraints. Healthcare (Basel) 2021; 9:921. [PMID: 34442058 PMCID: PMC8394640 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare9080921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2021] [Revised: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) are significantly affected by age and may represent restrictions on functional independence. Previous studies in young adults have already highlighted that changing postural stability (i.e., seated vs. upright posture) affects the motor planning and APAs. In frail older adults (FOAs), the effect of these different conditions of postural stability have not yet been established, and the present study aimed to disentangle this issue. Methods: Participants executed an arm-pointing task to reach a diode immediately after it turned on, under different conditions of stability (seated with and without foot support and in an upright posture). A kinematic profile of the index finger and postural electromyographic data were registered in their dominant-side leg muscles: tibialis anterior, soleus, rectus femoris, and semitendinosus. Results: The main finding of this study was that the adopted posture and body stabilization in FOAs did not reflect differences in APAs or kinematic features. In addition, they did not present an optimal APA, since postural muscles are recruited simultaneously with the deltoid. Conclusion: Thus, FOAs seem to use a single non-optimal motor plan to assist with task performance and counterbalance perturbation forces in which they present similar APAs and do not modify their kinematics features under different equilibrium constraints.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca Callegari
- Laboratory of Human Study Motricity, Federal University of Pará, Av. Generalíssimo Deodoro 01, Belém 66073-000, PA, Brazil; (M.B.D.); (G.C.d.S.A.)
| | - Alexandre Kubicki
- INSERM U1093, Cognition Action et Plasticité Sensori-Motrice, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France and FiKiP Hôpital Nord Franche-Comté, 2 rue du Docteur Flamand, 25200 Montbéliard, France;
| | - Ghislain Saunier
- Laboratorio de Cognição Motora, Departamento de Anatomia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa 01, Belém 66075-110, PA, Brazil;
| | - Manuela Brito Duarte
- Laboratory of Human Study Motricity, Federal University of Pará, Av. Generalíssimo Deodoro 01, Belém 66073-000, PA, Brazil; (M.B.D.); (G.C.d.S.A.)
| | - Gizele Cristina da Silva Almeida
- Laboratory of Human Study Motricity, Federal University of Pará, Av. Generalíssimo Deodoro 01, Belém 66073-000, PA, Brazil; (M.B.D.); (G.C.d.S.A.)
| | - Bruno Mazziotti Oliveira Alves
- Doctoral and Master’s Program in Physical Therapy, UNICID, 448/475 CesárioGaleno St., São Paulo 03071-000, SP, Brazil; (B.M.O.A.); (C.F.A.)
| | - César Ferreira Amorim
- Doctoral and Master’s Program in Physical Therapy, UNICID, 448/475 CesárioGaleno St., São Paulo 03071-000, SP, Brazil; (B.M.O.A.); (C.F.A.)
- Département des Sciences de la Santé, Programme de physiothérapie de l’université McGill offert en extension à l’UQAC, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, Canada
- Physical Therapy and Neuroscience Departments, Wertheims’ Colleges of Nursing and Health Sciences and Medicine, Florida International University (FIU), Miami, FL 33199, USA
| | - Daniela Rosa Garcez
- Hospital Universitário Bettina Ferro de Souza, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa 01, Belém 66075-110, PA, Brazil;
| | - Givago da Silva Souza
- Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa 01, Belém 66075-110, PA, Brazil;
| | - France Mourey
- INSERM U1093, Cognition Action et Plasticité Sensori-motrice, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 21078 Dijon, France;
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10
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Constancy of Preparatory Postural Adjustments for Reaching to Virtual Targets across Different Postural Configurations. Neuroscience 2020; 455:223-239. [PMID: 33246066 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2020] [Revised: 11/05/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Postural and movement components must be coordinated without significant disturbance to balance when reaching from a standing position. Traditional theories propose that muscle activity prior to movement onset create the mechanics to counteract the internal torques generated by the future limb movement, reducing possible instability via centre of mass (CoM) displacement. However, during goal-directed reach movements executed on a fixed base of support (BoS), preparatory postural adjustments (or pPAs) promote movement of the CoM within the BoS. Considering this dichotomy, the current study investigated if pPAs constitute part of a whole-body strategy that is tied to the efficient execution of movement, rather than the constraints of balance. We reasoned that if pPAs were tied primarily to balance control, they would modulate as a function of perceived instability. Alternatively, if tied to dynamics necessary for movement initiation, they would remain unchanged, with feedback-based changes being sufficient to retain balance following volitional arm movement. Participants executed beyond-arm reaching movements in four different postural configurations that altered the quality of the BoS. Quantification of these changes to stability did not drastically alter the tuning or timing of preparatory muscle activity despite modifications to arm and CoM trajectories necessary to complete the reaching movement. In contrast to traditional views, preparatory postural muscle activity is not always tuned for balance maintenance or even as a calculation of upcoming instability but may reflect a requirement of voluntary movement towards a pre-defined location.
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11
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Hilt PM, Cardellicchio P, Dolfini E, Pozzo T, Fadiga L, D’Ausilio A. Motor Recruitment during Action Observation: Effect of Interindividual Differences in Action Strategy. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:3910-3920. [PMID: 32043124 PMCID: PMC7264692 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2019] [Revised: 11/04/2019] [Accepted: 01/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual processing of other's actions is supported by sensorimotor brain activations. Access to sensorimotor representations may, in principle, provide the top-down signal required to bias search and selection of critical visual features. For this to happen, it is necessary that a stable one-to-one mapping exists between observed kinematics and underlying motor commands. However, due to the inherent redundancy of the human musculoskeletal system, this is hardly the case for multijoint actions where everyone has his own moving style (individual motor signature-IMS). Here, we investigated the influence of subject's IMS on subjects' motor excitability during the observation of an actor achieving the same goal by adopting two different IMSs. Despite a clear dissociation in kinematic and electromyographic patterns between the two actions, we found no group-level modulation of corticospinal excitability (CSE) in observers. Rather, we found a negative relationship between CSE and actor-observer IMS distance, already at the single-subject level. Thus, sensorimotor activity during action observation does not slavishly replicate the motor plan implemented by the actor, but rather reflects the distance between what is canonical according to one's own motor template and the observed movements performed by other individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- P M Hilt
- IIT@UniFe Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - P Cardellicchio
- IIT@UniFe Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - E Dolfini
- IIT@UniFe Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - T Pozzo
- IIT@UniFe Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
- INSERMU1093, Universite de Bourgogne Franche-Comte, 21000, Dijon, France
| | - L Fadiga
- IIT@UniFe Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
- Section of Human Physiology, Università di Ferrara, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - A D’Ausilio
- IIT@UniFe Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
- Section of Human Physiology, Università di Ferrara, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
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12
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White O, Gaveau J, Bringoux L, Crevecoeur F. The gravitational imprint on sensorimotor planning and control. J Neurophysiol 2020; 124:4-19. [PMID: 32348686 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00381.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans excel at learning complex tasks, and elite performers such as musicians or athletes develop motor skills that defy biomechanical constraints. All actions require the movement of massive bodies. Of particular interest in the process of sensorimotor learning and control is the impact of gravitational forces on the body. Indeed, efficient control and accurate internal representations of the body configuration in space depend on our ability to feel and anticipate the action of gravity. Here we review studies on perception and sensorimotor control in both normal and altered gravity. Behavioral and modeling studies together suggested that the nervous system develops efficient strategies to take advantage of gravitational forces across a wide variety of tasks. However, when the body was exposed to altered gravity, the rate and amount of adaptation exhibited substantial variation from one experiment to another and sometimes led to partial adjustment only. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the brain uses a multimodal and flexible representation of the effect of gravity on our body and movements. Future work is necessary to better characterize the nature of this internal representation and the extent to which it can adapt to novel contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- O White
- INSERM UMR1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - J Gaveau
- INSERM UMR1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - L Bringoux
- Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, CNRS, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - F Crevecoeur
- Institute of Communication and Information Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM), UCLouvain, Belgium.,Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), UCLouvain, Belgium
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13
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Abstract
SUMMARYHuman-like motion of robots can improve human–robot interaction and increase the efficiency. In this paper, a novel human-like motion planning strategy is proposed to help anthropomorphic arms generate human-like movements accurately. The strategy consists of three parts: movement primitives, Bayesian network (BN), and a novel coupling neural network (CPNN). The movement primitives are used to decouple the human arm movements. The classification of arm movements improves the accuracy of human-like movements. The motion-decision algorithm based on BN is able to predict occurrence probabilities of the motions and choose appropriate mode of motion. Then, a novel CPNN is proposed to solve the inverse kinematics problems of anthropomorphic arms. The CPNN integrates different models into a single network and reflects the features of these models by changing the network structure. Through the strategy, the anthropomorphic arms can generate various human-like movements with satisfactory accuracy. Finally, the availability of the proposed strategy is verified by simulations for the general motion of humanoid NAO.
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14
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Thomas E, French R, Alizee G, Coull JT. Having your cake and eating it: Faster responses with reduced muscular activation while learning a temporal interval. Neuroscience 2019; 410:68-75. [PMID: 31082534 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2018] [Revised: 05/01/2019] [Accepted: 05/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
We examined how motor responses to a stimulus evolve as individuals learn to predict when a stimulus will appear, by comparing responses to a regular versus irregular stimulus train. The study was conducted with two groups of adults - one responded to the regular appearance of a visual stimulus every 3 s (R group) and the second responded to the irregular presentation of the same stimulus (IR group) at intervals varying between 2 and 4 s. Participants responded to the appearance of the stimulus by bending over to press a button that was slightly out of reach. This whole body reach requires muscular activation at the ankles. Over the course of 50 consecutive responses, the response times in the R group were found to decrease more than those for participants in the IR group. The electromyographs (EMGs) of two ankle antagonist muscles, the anterior tibialis and soleus were also modified as participants progressively learnt the temporal regularity of a sequence. Tibialis onset times for the R group were found to decrease faster. A less predictable observation was the faster reduction in post stimulus activation of the tibialis muscle for the R group. Soleus muscle deactivation is an indicator of movement preparation. EMG integrals for this muscle a little before stimulus onset showed a trend for greater decrease in the R group. In summary, our study shows that temporal expectations over repeated stimulus presentation permit the dynamic optimization of motor activity with progressively faster response times, muscle activation onset times and lower muscle activation amplitudes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Thomas
- UFR-STAPS, INSERM U-1093, Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP, 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France.
| | - Robert French
- LEAD, CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, I3M, 64 Rue de Sully, 21000 Dijon, France
| | - Guy Alizee
- UFR-STAPS, INSERM U-1093, Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP, 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France
| | - Jennifer T Coull
- Laboratoire des Neurosciences Cognitives UMR 7291, Aix-Marseille Université & CNRS, 3 Place Victor-Hugo, 13331, Marseille Cedex 3, France
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15
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Multi-layer adaptation of group coordination in musical ensembles. Sci Rep 2019; 9:5854. [PMID: 30971783 PMCID: PMC6458170 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-42395-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2018] [Accepted: 03/22/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Group coordination passes through an efficient integration of multimodal sources of information. This study examines complex non-verbal communication by recording movement kinematics from conductors and two sections of violinists of an orchestra adapting to a perturbation affecting their normal pattern of sensorimotor communication (rotation of half a turn of the first violinists’ section). We show that different coordination signals are channeled through ancillary (head kinematics) and instrumental movements (bow kinematics). Each one of them affect coordination either at the inter-group or intra-group levels, therefore tapping into different modes of cooperation: complementary versus imitative coordination. Our study suggests that the co-regulation of group behavior is based on the exchange of information across several layers, each one of them tuned to carry specific coordinative signals. Multi-layer sensorimotor communication may be the key musicians and, more generally humans, use to flexibly communicate between each other in interactive sensorimotor tasks.
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16
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Casteran M, Hilt PM, Mourey F, Manckoundia P, French R, Thomas E. Shifts in Key Time Points and Strategies for a Multisegment Motor Task in Healthy Aging Subjects. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2018; 73:1609-1617. [PMID: 29741585 DOI: 10.1093/gerona/gly066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study, we compared key temporal points in the whole body pointing movement of healthy aging and young subjects. During this movement, subject leans forward from a standing position to reach a target. As it involves forward inclination of the trunk, the movement creates a risk for falling. We examined two strategic time points during the task-first, the crossover point where the velocity of the center of mass (CoM) in the vertical dimension outstripped the velocity in the anteroposterior dimension and secondly, the time to peak of the CoM velocity profile. Transitions to stabilizing postures occur at these time points. They both occurred earlier in aging subjects. The crossover point also showed adjustments with target distance in aging subjects, while this was not observed in younger subjects. The shifts in these key time points could not be attributed to differences in movement duration between the two groups. Investigation with an optimal control model showed that the temporal adjustment as a function of target distance in the healthy aging subjects fits into a strategy that emphasized equilibrium maintenance rather than absolute work as a control strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthieu Casteran
- Université de Lorraine, UFR Sciences Fondamentales et Appliquées, Département STAPS, Metz, France.,Laboratoire Lorrain de Psychologie et Neurosciences de la dynamique des comportements, Metz, France
| | - Pauline M Hilt
- Instituto Italiano di Technologia, Centre for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication, Ferrara, Italy
| | - France Mourey
- UFR-STAPS, INSERM U-1093, Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, Dijon, France
| | - Patrick Manckoundia
- Service de Médecine Interne Gériatrie, Hôpital de Champmaillot, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Dijon cedex, France
| | - Robert French
- LEAD, CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Elizabeth Thomas
- UFR-STAPS, INSERM U-1093, Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, Dijon, France
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17
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Deciphering the functional role of spatial and temporal muscle synergies in whole-body movements. Sci Rep 2018; 8:8391. [PMID: 29849101 PMCID: PMC5976658 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26780-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/11/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Voluntary movement is hypothesized to rely on a limited number of muscle synergies, the recruitment of which translates task goals into effective muscle activity. In this study, we investigated how to analytically characterize the functional role of different types of muscle synergies in task performance. To this end, we recorded a comprehensive dataset of muscle activity during a variety of whole-body pointing movements. We decomposed the electromyographic (EMG) signals using a space-by-time modularity model which encompasses the main types of synergies. We then used a task decoding and information theoretic analysis to probe the role of each synergy by mapping it to specific task features. We found that the temporal and spatial aspects of the movements were encoded by different temporal and spatial muscle synergies, respectively, consistent with the intuition that there should a correspondence between major attributes of movement and major features of synergies. This approach led to the development of a novel computational method for comparing muscle synergies from different participants according to their functional role. This functional similarity analysis yielded a small set of temporal and spatial synergies that describes the main features of whole-body reaching movements.
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18
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Hilt PM, Delis I, Pozzo T, Berret B. Space-by-Time Modular Decomposition Effectively Describes Whole-Body Muscle Activity During Upright Reaching in Various Directions. Front Comput Neurosci 2018; 12:20. [PMID: 29666576 PMCID: PMC5891645 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2018.00020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2017] [Accepted: 03/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The modular control hypothesis suggests that motor commands are built from precoded modules whose specific combined recruitment can allow the performance of virtually any motor task. Despite considerable experimental support, this hypothesis remains tentative as classical findings of reduced dimensionality in muscle activity may also result from other constraints (biomechanical couplings, data averaging or low dimensionality of motor tasks). Here we assessed the effectiveness of modularity in describing muscle activity in a comprehensive experiment comprising 72 distinct point-to-point whole-body movements during which the activity of 30 muscles was recorded. To identify invariant modules of a temporal and spatial nature, we used a space-by-time decomposition of muscle activity that has been shown to encompass classical modularity models. To examine the decompositions, we focused not only on the amount of variance they explained but also on whether the task performed on each trial could be decoded from the single-trial activations of modules. For the sake of comparison, we confronted these scores to the scores obtained from alternative non-modular descriptions of the muscle data. We found that the space-by-time decomposition was effective in terms of data approximation and task discrimination at comparable reduction of dimensionality. These findings show that few spatial and temporal modules give a compact yet approximate representation of muscle patterns carrying nearly all task-relevant information for a variety of whole-body reaching movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline M Hilt
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1093, Cognition Action Plasticité Sensorimotrice, Dijon, France.,Italian Institute of Technology CTNSC@UniFe (Center of Translational Neurophysiology for Speech and Communication), Ferrara, Italy
| | - Ioannis Delis
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Thierry Pozzo
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1093, Cognition Action Plasticité Sensorimotrice, Dijon, France.,Italian Institute of Technology CTNSC@UniFe (Center of Translational Neurophysiology for Speech and Communication), Ferrara, Italy
| | - Bastien Berret
- CIAMS, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France.,CIAMS, Université d'Orléans, Orléans, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
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19
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Callegari B, Saunier G, Duarte MB, Almeida GCDS, Amorim CF, Mourey F, Pozzo T, Souza GDS. Anticipatory Postural Adjustments and kinematic arm features when postural stability is manipulated. PeerJ 2018; 6:e4309. [PMID: 29576932 PMCID: PMC5857349 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2017] [Accepted: 01/10/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Beyond the classical paradigm that presents the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APAs) as a manner to create forces that counteract disturbances arising from the moving segment during a pointing task, there is a controversial discussion about the role APAs to facilitate the movement and perform a task accurately. In addition, arm kinematics features are classically used to infer the content of motor planning for the execution and the control of arm movements. The present study aimed to disentangle the conflicting role of APAs during an arm-pointing task in which the subjects reach a central diode that suddenly turns on, while their postural stability was manipulated. Three postures were applied: Standing (Up), Sit without feet support (SitUnsup) and Sit with feet support (SitSup). We found that challenging postural stability induced an increase of the reaction time and movement duration (observed for the SitUnsup compared to SitSUp and Up) as well as modified the upper-limb velocity profile. Indeed, a greater max velocity and a shorter deceleration time were observed under the highest stability (SitSup). Thus, these Kinematics features reflect less challenging task and simple motor plan when the body is stabilized. Concerning the APAs, we observed the presence of them independently of the postural stability. Such a result strongly suggests that APAs act to facilitate the limb movement and to counteract perturbation forces. In conclusion, the degree of stability seems particularly tuned to the motor planning of the upper-limb during a pointing task whereas the postural chain (sitting vs. standing) was also determinant for APAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca Callegari
- Laboratório de Estudos da Motricidade Humana, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil
| | - Ghislain Saunier
- Laboratorio de Cognição Motora, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil
| | - Manuela Brito Duarte
- Laboratório de Estudos da Motricidade Humana, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil
| | | | - Cesar Ferreira Amorim
- Doctoral and Masters Program in Physical Therapy, Universidade Cidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - France Mourey
- INSERM U1093, Cognition Action et Plasticité Sensori-motrice, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
| | - Thierry Pozzo
- INSERM U1093, Cognition Action et Plasticité Sensori-motrice, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France.,Italian Institute of Technology CTNSC@UniFe (Center of Translational Neurophysiology for Speech and Communication), Italian Institute of Technology, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Givago da Silva Souza
- Núcleo de Medicina Tropical, Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil
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20
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Tomita Y, Rodrigues MRM, Levin MF. Upper Limb Coordination in Individuals With Stroke: Poorly Defined and Poorly Quantified. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 2017; 31:885-897. [DOI: 10.1177/1545968317739998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Background. The identification of deficits in interjoint coordination is important in order to better focus upper limb rehabilitative treatment after stroke. The majority of standardized clinical measures characterize endpoint performance, such as accuracy, speed, and smoothness, based on the assumption that endpoint performance reflects interjoint coordination, without measuring the underlying temporal and spatial sequences of joint recruitment directly. However, this assumption is questioned since improvements of endpoint performance can be achieved through different degrees of restitution or compensation of upper limb motor impairments based on the available kinematic redundancy of the system. Confusion about adequate measurement may stem from a lack a definition of interjoint coordination during reaching. Methods and Results. We suggest an operational definition of interjoint coordination during reaching as a goal-oriented process in which joint degrees of freedom are organized in both spatial and temporal domains such that the endpoint reaches a desired location in a context-dependent manner. Conclusions. In this point-of-view article, we consider how current approaches to laboratory and clinical measures of coordination comply with our definition. We propose future study directions and specific research strategies to develop clinical measures of interjoint coordination with better construct and content validity than those currently in use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yosuke Tomita
- McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR), Laval, Quebec, Canada
| | - Marcos R. M. Rodrigues
- McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR), Laval, Quebec, Canada
| | - Mindy F. Levin
- McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR), Laval, Quebec, Canada
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21
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Action observation effects reflect the modular organization of the human motor system. Cortex 2017; 95:104-118. [PMID: 28866300 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2017] [Revised: 04/27/2017] [Accepted: 07/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Action observation, similarly to action execution, facilitates the observer's motor system and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has been instrumental in exploring the nature of these motor activities. However, contradictory findings question some of the fundamental assumptions regarding the neural computations run by the Action Observation Network (AON). To better understand this issue, we delivered TMS over the observers' motor cortex at two timings of two reaching-grasping actions (precision vs power grip) and we recorded Motor-Evoked Potentials (4 hand/arm muscles; MEPs). At the same time, we also recorded whole-hand TMS Evoked Kinematics (8 hand elevation angles; MEKs) that capture the global functional motor output, as opposed to the limited view offered by recording few muscles. By repeating the same protocol twice, and a third time after continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the motor cortex, we observe significant time-dependent grip-specific MEPs and MEKs modulations, that disappeared after cTBS. MEKs, differently from MEPs, exhibit a consistent significant modulation across pre-cTBS sessions. Beside clear methodological implications, the multidimensionality of MEKs opens a window on muscle synergies needed to overcome system redundancy. By providing better access to the AON computations, our results strengthen the idea that action observation shares key organizational similarities with action execution.
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22
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Santamaria V, Rachwani J, Manselle W, Saavedra SL, Woollacott M. The Impact of Segmental Trunk Support on Posture and Reaching While Sitting in Healthy Adults. J Mot Behav 2017; 50:51-64. [PMID: 28350227 DOI: 10.1080/00222895.2017.1283289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The authors investigated postural and arm control in seated reaches while providing trunk support at midribs and pelvic levels in adults. Kinematics and electromyography of the arm and ipsiliateral and contralateral paraspinal muscles were examined before and during reaching. Kinematics remained constant across conditions, but changes were observed in neuromuscular control. With midribs support, the ipsilateral cervical muscle showed either increased anticipatory activity or earlier compensatory muscle responses, suggesting its major role in head stabilization. The baseline activity of bilateral lumbar muscles was enhanced with midribs support, whereas with pelvic support, the activation frequency of paraspinal muscles increased during reaching. The results suggest that segmental trunk support in healthy adults modulates ipsilateral or contralateral paraspinal activity while overall kinematic outputs remain invariant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor Santamaria
- a Motor Control and Cognition Lab, Human Physiology Department & Institute of Neuroscience , University of Oregon , Eugene , Oregon
| | - Jaya Rachwani
- a Motor Control and Cognition Lab, Human Physiology Department & Institute of Neuroscience , University of Oregon , Eugene , Oregon
| | - Wayne Manselle
- a Motor Control and Cognition Lab, Human Physiology Department & Institute of Neuroscience , University of Oregon , Eugene , Oregon
| | - Sandra L Saavedra
- b Department of Rehabilitation Sciences , University of Hartford , West Hartford , Connecticut
| | - Marjorie Woollacott
- a Motor Control and Cognition Lab, Human Physiology Department & Institute of Neuroscience , University of Oregon , Eugene , Oregon
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23
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Hilt PM, Berret B, Papaxanthis C, Stapley PJ, Pozzo T. Evidence for subjective values guiding posture and movement coordination in a free-endpoint whole-body reaching task. Sci Rep 2016; 6:23868. [PMID: 27053508 PMCID: PMC4823734 DOI: 10.1038/srep23868] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2015] [Accepted: 03/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
When moving, humans must overcome intrinsic (body centered) and extrinsic (target-related) redundancy, requiring decisions when selecting one motor solution among several potential ones. During classical reaching studies the position of a salient target determines where the participant should reach, constraining the associated motor decisions. We aimed at investigating implicit variables guiding action selection when faced with the complexity of human-environment interaction. Subjects had to perform whole body reaching movements towards a uniform surface. We observed little variation in the self-chosen motor strategy across repeated trials while movements were variable across subjects being on a continuum from a pure 'knee flexion' associated with a downward center of mass (CoM) displacement to an 'ankle dorsi-flexion' associated with an upward CoM displacement. Two optimality criteria replicated these two strategies: a mix between mechanical energy expenditure and joint smoothness and a minimization of the amount of torques. Our results illustrate the presence of idiosyncratic values guiding posture and movement coordination that can be combined in a flexible manner as a function of context and subject. A first value accounts for the reach efficiency of the movement at the price of selecting possibly unstable postures. The other predicts stable dynamic equilibrium but requires larger energy expenditure and jerk.
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Affiliation(s)
- P. M. Hilt
- INSERM-U1093, Action Cognition et Plasticité Sensorimotrice, Univ Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
- Italian Institute of Technology CTNSC@UniFe (Center of Translational Neurophysiology for Speech and Communication) Via Fossato di Mortara, 17/19 - 44100 - Ferrara
| | - B. Berret
- CIAMS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
- CIAMS, Université d’Orléans, 45067, Orléans, France
| | - C. Papaxanthis
- INSERM-U1093, Action Cognition et Plasticité Sensorimotrice, Univ Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - P. J. Stapley
- Neural Control of Movement Lab, School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - T. Pozzo
- INSERM-U1093, Action Cognition et Plasticité Sensorimotrice, Univ Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
- Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
- Italian Institute of Technology CTNSC@UniFe (Center of Translational Neurophysiology for Speech and Communication) Via Fossato di Mortara, 17/19 - 44100 - Ferrara
- Institut Universitaire de France, Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, UFR STAPS Dijon, France.
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24
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Tagliabue M, Ciancio AL, Brochier T, Eskiizmirliler S, Maier MA. Differences between kinematic synergies and muscle synergies during two-digit grasping. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:165. [PMID: 25859208 PMCID: PMC4374551 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2014] [Accepted: 03/10/2015] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The large number of mechanical degrees of freedom of the hand is not fully exploited during actual movements such as grasping. Usually, angular movements in various joints tend to be coupled, and EMG activities in different hand muscles tend to be correlated. The occurrence of covariation in the former was termed kinematic synergies, in the latter muscle synergies. This study addresses two questions: (i) Whether kinematic and muscle synergies can simultaneously accommodate for kinematic and kinetic constraints. (ii) If so, whether there is an interrelation between kinematic and muscle synergies. We used a reach-grasp-and-pull paradigm and recorded the hand kinematics as well as eight surface EMGs. Subjects had to either perform a precision grip or side grip and had to modify their grip force in order to displace an object against a low or high load. The analysis was subdivided into three epochs: reach, grasp-and-pull, and static hold. Principal component analysis (PCA, temporal or static) was performed separately for all three epochs, in the kinematic and in the EMG domain. PCA revealed that (i) Kinematic- and muscle-synergies can simultaneously accommodate kinematic (grip type) and kinetic task constraints (load condition). (ii) Upcoming grip and load conditions of the grasp are represented in kinematic- and muscle-synergies already during reach. Phase plane plots of the principal muscle-synergy against the principal kinematic synergy revealed (iii) that the muscle-synergy is linked (correlated, and in phase advance) to the kinematic synergy during reach and during grasp-and-pull. Furthermore (iv), pair-wise correlations of EMGs during hold suggest that muscle-synergies are (in part) implemented by coactivation of muscles through common input. Together, these results suggest that kinematic synergies have (at least in part) their origin not just in muscular activation, but in synergistic muscle activation. In short: kinematic synergies may result from muscle synergies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Tagliabue
- Neuroscience Research Federation FR3636, CNRS, Université Paris Descartes Paris, France ; Centre de Neurophysique, Physiologie et Pathologie, UMR 8119, CNRS, Université Paris Descartes Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Anna Lisa Ciancio
- Laboratory of Biomedical Robotic and Biomicrosystem, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma Roma, Italy
| | - Thomas Brochier
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR 7289, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France
| | - Selim Eskiizmirliler
- Neuroscience Research Federation FR3636, CNRS, Université Paris Descartes Paris, France ; Life Sciences Department, Université Paris Diderot Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Marc A Maier
- Neuroscience Research Federation FR3636, CNRS, Université Paris Descartes Paris, France ; Life Sciences Department, Université Paris Diderot Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
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25
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Morasso P, Casadio M, Mohan V, Rea F, Zenzeri J. Revisiting the body-schema concept in the context of whole-body postural-focal dynamics. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:83. [PMID: 25741274 PMCID: PMC4330890 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2014] [Accepted: 02/02/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The body-schema concept is revisited in the context of embodied cognition, further developing the theory formulated by Marc Jeannerod that the motor system is part of a simulation network related to action, whose function is not only to shape the motor system for preparing an action (either overt or covert) but also to provide the self with information on the feasibility and the meaning of potential actions. The proposed computational formulation is based on a dynamical system approach, which is linked to an extension of the equilibrium-point hypothesis, called Passive Motor Paradigm: this dynamical system generates goal-oriented, spatio-temporal, sensorimotor patterns, integrating a direct and inverse internal model in a multi-referential framework. The purpose of such computational model is to operate at the same time as a general synergy formation machinery for planning whole-body actions in humanoid robots and/or for predicting coordinated sensory-motor patterns in human movements. In order to illustrate the computational approach, the integration of simultaneous, even partially conflicting tasks will be analyzed in some detail with regard to postural-focal dynamics, which can be defined as the fusion of a focal task, namely reaching a target with the whole-body, and a postural task, namely maintaining overall stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pietro Morasso
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Genoa , Italy ; Dipartimento di Informatica, Bioingegneria, Robotica e Ingegneria dei Sistemi (DIBRIS), University of Genoa , Genoa , Italy
| | - Maura Casadio
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Genoa , Italy ; Dipartimento di Informatica, Bioingegneria, Robotica e Ingegneria dei Sistemi (DIBRIS), University of Genoa , Genoa , Italy
| | - Vishwanathan Mohan
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Genoa , Italy
| | - Francesco Rea
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Genoa , Italy
| | - Jacopo Zenzeri
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Genoa , Italy
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26
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Zhang L, Straube A, Eggert T. Torque response to external perturbation during unconstrained goal-directed arm movements. Exp Brain Res 2014; 232:1173-84. [PMID: 24477761 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-014-3826-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2013] [Accepted: 01/04/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
It is unclear to what extent control strategies of 2D reaching movements of the upper limbs also apply to movements with the full seven degrees of freedom (DoFs) including rotation of the forearm. An increase in DoFs may result in increased movement complexity and instability. This study investigates the trajectories of unconstrained reaching movements and their stability against perturbations of the upper arm. Reaching movements were measured using an ultrasound marker system, and the method of inverse dynamics was applied to compute the time courses of joint torques. In full DoF reaching movements, the velocity of some joint angles showed multiple peaks, while the bell-shaped profile of the tangential hand velocity was preserved. This result supports previous evidence that tangential hand velocity is an essential part of the movement plan. Further, torque responses elicited by external perturbation started shortly after perturbation, almost simultaneously with the perturbation-induced displacement of the arm, and were mainly observed in the same joint angles as the perturbation torques, with similar shapes but opposite signs. These results indicate that these torque responses were compensatory and contributed to system stabilization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Zhang
- Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany,
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27
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Chiovetto E, Giese MA. Kinematics of the coordination of pointing during locomotion. PLoS One 2013; 8:e79555. [PMID: 24260249 PMCID: PMC3834210 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2013] [Accepted: 09/25/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
In natural motor behaviour arm movements, such as pointing or reaching, often need to be coordinated with locomotion. The underlying coordination patterns are largely unexplored, and require the integration of both rhythmic and discrete movement primitives. For the systematic and controlled study of such coordination patterns we have developed a paradigm that combines locomotion on a treadmill with time-controlled pointing to targets in the three-dimensional space, exploiting a virtual reality setup. Participants had to walk at a constant velocity on a treadmill. Synchronized with specific foot events, visual target stimuli were presented that appeared at different spatial locations in front of them. Participants were asked to reach these stimuli within a short time interval after a "go" signal. We analysed the variability patterns of the most relevant joint angles, as well as the time coupling between the time of pointing and different critical timing events in the foot movements. In addition, we applied a new technique for the extraction of movement primitives from kinematic data based on anechoic demixing. We found a modification of the walking pattern as consequence of the arm movement, as well as a modulation of the duration of the reaching movement in dependence of specific foot events. The extraction of kinematic movement primitives from the joint angle trajectories exploiting the new algorithm revealed the existence of two distinct main components accounting, respectively, for the rhythmic and discrete components of the coordinated movement pattern. Summarizing, our study shows a reciprocal pattern of influences between the coordination patterns of reaching and walking. This pattern might be explained by the dynamic interactions between central pattern generators that initiate rhythmic and discrete movements of the lower and upper limbs, and biomechanical factors such as the dynamic gait stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Chiovetto
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Department of Cognitive Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Martin A. Giese
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Department of Cognitive Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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28
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Voudouris D, Radhakrishnan S, Hatzitaki V, Brenner E. Does postural stability affect grasping? Gait Posture 2013; 38:477-82. [PMID: 23403151 DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2013.01.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2012] [Revised: 01/14/2013] [Accepted: 01/19/2013] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
We examined whether challenging upright stance influences the execution of a grasping task. Participants reached to grasp a small sphere while standing either on a stable surface or on foam. Before reaching for the sphere, participants exhibited more body sway and greater fluctuations in the centre of pressure when standing on foam. While reaching for the sphere, the overall body posture changed less when standing on foam than when standing on the stable surface. The digits' and wrist's movements towards the sphere were no different when standing on foam than when standing on the stable surface. Presumably, the redundancy in the way movements can be performed is exploited to choose the most suitable changes in joint angles to achieve the desired movements of the digits under the prevailing conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitris Voudouris
- Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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29
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Schütz C, Schack T. Motor primitives of pointing movements in a three-dimensional workspace. Exp Brain Res 2013; 227:355-65. [PMID: 23604576 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-013-3516-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2012] [Accepted: 04/06/2013] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Schütz
- Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstrasse 25, P.O. Box 100 131, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
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30
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Delis I, Berret B, Pozzo T, Panzeri S. Quantitative evaluation of muscle synergy models: a single-trial task decoding approach. Front Comput Neurosci 2013; 7:8. [PMID: 23471195 PMCID: PMC3590454 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2013.00008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2012] [Accepted: 02/07/2013] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Muscle synergies, i.e., invariant coordinated activations of groups of muscles, have been proposed as building blocks that the central nervous system (CNS) uses to construct the patterns of muscle activity utilized for executing movements. Several efficient dimensionality reduction algorithms that extract putative synergies from electromyographic (EMG) signals have been developed. Typically, the quality of synergy decompositions is assessed by computing the Variance Accounted For (VAF). Yet, little is known about the extent to which the combination of those synergies encodes task-discriminating variations of muscle activity in individual trials. To address this question, here we conceive and develop a novel computational framework to evaluate muscle synergy decompositions in task space. Unlike previous methods considering the total variance of muscle patterns (VAF based metrics), our approach focuses on variance discriminating execution of different tasks. The procedure is based on single-trial task decoding from muscle synergy activation features. The task decoding based metric evaluates quantitatively the mapping between synergy recruitment and task identification and automatically determines the minimal number of synergies that captures all the task-discriminating variability in the synergy activations. In this paper, we first validate the method on plausibly simulated EMG datasets. We then show that it can be applied to different types of muscle synergy decomposition and illustrate its applicability to real data by using it for the analysis of EMG recordings during an arm pointing task. We find that time-varying and synchronous synergies with similar number of parameters are equally efficient in task decoding, suggesting that in this experimental paradigm they are equally valid representations of muscle synergies. Overall, these findings stress the effectiveness of the decoding metric in systematically assessing muscle synergy decompositions in task space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ioannis Delis
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaGenoa, Italy
- Communication, Computer and System Sciences Department, Doctoral School on Life and Humanoid Technologies, University of GenoaGenoa, Italy
| | - Bastien Berret
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaGenoa, Italy
- UR CIAMS, EA 4532 – Motor Control and Perception Team, Université Paris-Sud 11Orsay, France
| | - Thierry Pozzo
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaGenoa, Italy
- Institut Universitaire de France, Université de Bourgogne, Campus UniversitaireUFR STAPS Dijon, France
- INSERM, U1093, Action Cognition et Plasticité SensorimotriceDijon, France
| | - Stefano Panzeri
- Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UniTn, Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaRovereto, Italy
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of GlasgowGlasgow, UK
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31
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Alterations with movement duration in the kinematics of a whole body pointing movement. PLoS One 2013; 8:e52477. [PMID: 23341899 PMCID: PMC3544901 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2012] [Accepted: 11/19/2012] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Our aim was to investigate how the organization of a whole body movement is altered when movement duration (MD) is varied. Subjects performed the same whole body pointing movement over long, normal and short MDs. The kinematic trajectories were then analyzed on a normalized time base. A principal components analysis (PCA) revealed that the degree of coordination between the elevation angles of the body did not change with MD. This lack of significant differences in the coordination was interesting given that small spatial and temporal differences were observed in the individual kinematic trajectories. They were revealed by studying the trajectories of the elevation angles, joint markers and center of mass. The elevation angle excursions displayed modifications primarily in their spatial characteristics. These alterations were more marked for the short rather than long duration movements. The temporal characteristics of the elevation angles as measured by the time to peak of angular velocity were not modified in the same fashion hence displaying a dissociation in the tuning of the spatial and temporal aspects of the elevation angles. Modifications in the temporal characteristics of the movement were also studied by examining the velocity profiles of the joint markers. Interestingly, unlike the disordered nature of this variable for the elevation angles, the time to peak velocity was neatly ordered as a function of MD for the joint markers – It arrived first for the short duration movements, followed by those of the normal and finally long duration movements. Despite the modifications observed in the kinematic trajectories, a PCA with the elevation angle excursions at different MDs revealed that two principal components were sufficient to account for nearly all the variance in the data. Our results suggest that although similar, the kinematic trajectories at different MDs are not achieved by a simple time scaling.
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32
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Sela I, Karni A. Differences in learning volitional (manual) and non-volitional (posture) aspects of a complex motor skill in young adult dyslexic and skilled readers. PLoS One 2012; 7:e43488. [PMID: 23049736 PMCID: PMC3458875 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2012] [Accepted: 07/20/2012] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The 'Cerebellar Deficit Theory' of developmental dyslexia proposes that a subtle developmental cerebellar dysfunction leads to deficits in attaining 'automatic' procedures and therefore manifests as subtle motor impairments (e.g., balance control, motor skill learning) in addition to the reading and phonological difficulties. A more recent version of the theory suggests a core deficit in motor skill acquisition. This study was undertaken to compare the time-course and the nature of practice-related changes in volitional (manual) and non-volitional (posture) motor performance in dyslexic and typical readers while learning a new movement sequence. Seventeen dyslexic and 26 skilled young adult readers underwent a three-session training program in which they practiced a novel sequence of manual movements while standing in a quiet stance position. Both groups exhibited robust and well-retained gains in speed, with no loss of accuracy, on the volitional, manual, aspects of the task, with a time-course characteristic of procedural learning. However, the dyslexic readers exhibited a pervasive slowness in the initiation of volitional performance. In addition, while typical readers showed clear and well-retained task-related adaptation of the balance and posture control system, the dyslexic readers had significantly larger sway and variance of sway throughout the three sessions and were less efficient in adapting the posture control system to support the acquisition of the novel movement sequence. These results support the notion of a non-language-related deficit in developmental dyslexia, one related to the recruitment of motor systems for effective task performance rather than to a general motor learning disability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Itamar Sela
- Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
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33
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Tolambiya A, Chiovetto E, Pozzo T, Thomas E. Modulation of anticipatory postural activity for multiple conditions of a whole-body pointing task. Neuroscience 2012; 210:179-90. [PMID: 22640819 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.02.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2011] [Revised: 02/29/2012] [Accepted: 02/29/2012] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- A Tolambiya
- Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France
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34
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Ma HI, Hwang WJ, Wang CY, Fang JJ, Leong IF, Wang TY. Trunk-arm coordination in reaching for moving targets in people with Parkinson's disease: comparison between virtual and physical reality. Hum Mov Sci 2012; 31:1340-52. [PMID: 22513232 DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2011.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2011] [Revised: 09/16/2011] [Accepted: 11/08/2011] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
We used a trunk-assisted prehension task to examine the effect of task (reaching for stationary vs. moving targets) and environmental constraints (virtual reality [VR] vs. physical reality) on the temporal control of trunk and arm motions in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Twenty-four participants with PD and 24 age-matched controls reached for and grasped a ball that was either stationary or moving along a ramp 120% of arm length away. In a similar VR task, participants reached for a virtual ball that was either stationary or moving. Movement speed was measured as trunk and arm movement times (MTs); trunk-arm coordination was measured as onset interval and offset interval between trunk and arm motions, as well as a summarized index-desynchrony score. In both VR and physical reality, the PD group had longer trunk and arm MTs than the control group when reaching for stationary balls (p<.001). When reaching for moving balls in VR and physical reality, however, the PD group had lower trunk and arm MTs, onset intervals, and desynchrony scores (p<.001). For the PD group, VR induced shorter trunk MTs, shorter offset intervals, and lower desynchrony scores than did physical reality when reaching for moving balls (p<.001). These findings suggest that using real moving targets in trunk-assisted prehension tasks improves the speed and synchronization of trunk and arm motions in people with PD, and that using virtual moving targets may induce a movement termination strategy different from that used in physical reality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui-Ing Ma
- Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
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35
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Chiovetto E, Patanè L, Pozzo T. Variant and invariant features characterizing natural and reverse whole-body pointing movements. Exp Brain Res 2012; 218:419-31. [PMID: 22370741 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-012-3030-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2011] [Accepted: 02/02/2012] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous investigations showed that kinematics and muscle activity associated with natural whole-body movements along the gravity direction present modular organizations encoding specific aspects relative to both the motor plans and the motor programmes underlying movement execution. It is, however, still unknown whether such modular structures characterize also the reverse movements, when the displacement of a large number of joints is required to take the whole body back to a standing initial posture. To study what motor patterns are conserved across the reversal of movement direction, principal component analysis and non-negative matrix factorization were therefore applied, respectively, to the time series describing the temporal evolution of the elevation angles associated with all the body links and to the electromyographic signals of both natural and reverse whole-body movements. Results revealed that elevation angles were highly co-varying in time and that despite some differences in the global parameters characterizing the different movements (indicating differences in high-level variable associated with the selected motor plans), the level of joint co-variation did not change across movement direction. In contrast, muscle organization of the forward whole-body pointing tasks was found to be different with respect to that characterizing the reverse movements. Such results agree with previous findings, according to which the central nervous system exploits, dependently on the direction of motion, different motor plans for the execution of whole-body movements. However, in addition, this study shows how such motor plans are translated into different muscle strategies that equivalently assure a high level of co-variation in the joint space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Chiovetto
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Department of Cognitive Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Frondsbergstrasse 23, 72070, Tübingen, Germany.
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36
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Casellato C, Tagliabue M, Pedrocchi A, Papaxanthis C, Ferrigno G, Pozzo T. Reaching while standing in microgravity: a new postural solution to oversimplify movement control. Exp Brain Res 2011; 216:203-15. [PMID: 22159588 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-011-2918-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2010] [Accepted: 10/21/2011] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Many studies showed that both arm movements and postural control are characterized by strong invariants. Besides, when a movement requires simultaneous control of the hand trajectory and balance maintenance, these two movement components are highly coordinated. It is well known that the focal and postural invariants are individually tightly linked to gravity, much less is known about the role of gravity in their coordination. It is not clear whether the effect of gravity on different movement components is such as to keep a strong movement-posture coordination even in different gravitational conditions or whether gravitational information is necessary for maintaining motor synergism. We thus set out to analyze the movements of eleven standing subjects reaching for a target in front of them beyond arm's length in normal conditions and in microgravity. The results showed that subjects quickly adapted to microgravity and were able to successfully accomplish the task. In contrast to the hand trajectory, the postural strategy was strongly affected by microgravity, so to become incompatible with normo-gravity balance constraints. The distinct effects of gravity on the focal and postural components determined a significant decrease in their reciprocal coordination. This finding suggests that movement-posture coupling is affected by gravity, and thus, it does not represent a unique hardwired and invariant mode of control. Additional kinematic and dynamic analyses suggest that the new motor strategy corresponds to a global oversimplification of movement control, fulfilling the mechanical and sensory constraints of the microgravity environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Casellato
- Bioengineering Department, NearLab, Politecnico di Milano, P.za Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy.
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37
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Abstract
Dexterous use of the hand represents a sophisticated sensorimotor function. In behaviors such as playing the piano, it can involve strong temporal and spatial constraints. The purpose of this study was to determine fundamental patterns of covariation of motion across joints and digits of the human hand. Joint motion was recorded while 5 expert pianists played 30 excerpts from musical pieces, which featured ∼50 different tone sequences and fingering. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis using an expectation-maximization algorithm revealed that joint velocities could be categorized into several patterns, which help to simplify the description of the movements of the multiple degrees of freedom of the hand. For the thumb keystroke, two distinct patterns of joint movement covariation emerged and they depended on the spatiotemporal patterns of the task. For example, the thumb-under maneuver was clearly separated into two clusters based on the direction of hand translation along the keyboard. While the pattern of the thumb joint velocities differed between these clusters, the motions at the metacarpo-phalangeal and proximal-phalangeal joints of the four fingers were more consistent. For a keystroke executed with one of the fingers, there were three distinct patterns of joint rotations, across which motion at the striking finger was fairly consistent, but motion of the other fingers was more variable. Furthermore, the amount of movement spillover of the striking finger to the adjacent fingers was small irrespective of the finger used for the keystroke. These findings describe an unparalleled amount of independent motion of the fingers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shinichi Furuya
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
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38
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Tolambiya A, Thomas E, Chiovetto E, Berret B, Pozzo T. An ensemble analysis of electromyographic activity during whole body pointing with the use of support vector machines. PLoS One 2011; 6:e20732. [PMID: 21814541 PMCID: PMC3144191 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2011] [Accepted: 05/10/2011] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
We explored the use of support vector machines (SVM) in order to analyze the ensemble activities of 24 postural and focal muscles recorded during a whole body pointing task. Because of the large number of variables involved in motor control studies, such multivariate methods have much to offer over the standard univariate techniques that are currently employed in the field to detect modifications. The SVM was used to uncover the principle differences underlying several variations of the task. Five variants of the task were used. An unconstrained reaching, two constrained at the focal level and two at the postural level. Using the electromyographic (EMG) data, the SVM proved capable of distinguishing all the unconstrained from the constrained conditions with a success of approximately 80% or above. In all cases, including those with focal constraints, the collective postural muscle EMGs were as good as or better than those from focal muscles for discriminating between conditions. This was unexpected especially in the case with focal constraints. In trying to rank the importance of particular features of the postural EMGs we found the maximum amplitude rather than the moment at which it occurred to be more discriminative. A classification using the muscles one at a time permitted us to identify some of the postural muscles that are significantly altered between conditions. In this case, the use of a multivariate method also permitted the use of the entire muscle EMG waveform rather than the difficult process of defining and extracting any particular variable. The best accuracy was obtained from muscles of the leg rather than from the trunk. By identifying the features that are important in discrimination, the use of the SVM permitted us to identify some of the features that are adapted when constraints are placed on a complex motor task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arvind Tolambiya
- Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France, INSERM, U887, Motricité-Plasticité, Dijon, F-21078, France
| | - Elizabeth Thomas
- Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France, INSERM, U887, Motricité-Plasticité, Dijon, F-21078, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Enrico Chiovetto
- Section for Computational Sensomotorics, Department of Cognitive Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Thierry Pozzo
- Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France, INSERM, U887, Motricité-Plasticité, Dijon, F-21078, France
- Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy
- IUF, Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, BP 27877, F-21078 Dijon, France
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39
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Abstract
The present study investigates how the CNS deals with the omnipresent force of gravity during arm motor planning. Previous studies have reported direction-dependent kinematic differences in the vertical plane; notably, acceleration duration was greater during a downward than an upward arm movement. Although the analysis of acceleration and deceleration phases has permitted to explore the integration of gravity force, further investigation is necessary to conclude whether feedforward or feedback control processes are at the origin of this incorporation. We considered that a more detailed analysis of the temporal features of vertical arm movements could provide additional information about gravity force integration into the motor planning. Eight subjects performed single joint vertical arm movements (45° rotation around the shoulder joint) in two opposite directions (upwards and downwards) and at three different speeds (slow, natural and fast). We calculated different parameters of hand acceleration profiles: movement duration (MD), duration to peak acceleration (D PA), duration from peak acceleration to peak velocity (D PA-PV), duration from peak velocity to peak deceleration (D PV-PD), duration from peak deceleration to the movement end (D PD-End), acceleration duration (AD), deceleration duration (DD), peak acceleration (PA), peak velocity (PV), and peak deceleration (PD). While movement durations and amplitudes were similar for upward and downward movements, the temporal structure of acceleration profiles differed between the two directions. More specifically, subjects performed upward movements faster than downward movements; these direction-dependent asymmetries appeared early in the movement (i.e., before PA) and lasted until the moment of PD. Additionally, PA and PV were greater for upward than downward movements. Movement speed also changed the temporal structure of acceleration profiles. The effect of speed and direction on the form of acceleration profiles is consistent with the premise that the CNS optimises motor commands with respect to both gravitational and inertial constraints.
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40
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Robertson JV, Roby-Brami A. The trunk as a part of the kinematic chain for reaching movements in healthy subjects and hemiparetic patients. Brain Res 2011; 1382:137-46. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2011.01.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2010] [Revised: 01/13/2011] [Accepted: 01/13/2011] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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41
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Chiovetto E, Berret B, Pozzo T. Tri-dimensional and triphasic muscle organization of whole-body pointing movements. Neuroscience 2010; 170:1223-38. [PMID: 20633612 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2010.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2010] [Revised: 06/25/2010] [Accepted: 07/06/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Variant and invariant patterns embedded in human locomotion through whole body kinematic coordination. Exp Brain Res 2010; 205:497-511. [PMID: 20700732 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-010-2385-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2010] [Accepted: 07/27/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Step length, cadence and joint flexion all increase in response to increases in gradient and walking speed. However, the tuning strategy leading to these changes has not been elucidated. One characteristic of joint variation that occurs during walking is the close relationship among the joints. This property reduces the number of degrees of freedom and seems to be a key issue in discussing the tuning strategy. This correlation has been analyzed for the lower limbs, but the relation between the trunk and lower body is generally ignored. Two questions about posture during walking are discussed in this paper: (1) whether there is a low-dimensional restriction that determines walking posture, which depends not just on the lower limbs but on the whole body, including the trunk and (2) whether some simple rules appear in different walking conditions. To investigate the correlation, singular value decomposition was applied to a measured walking pattern. This showed that the whole movement can be described by a closed loop on a two-dimensional plane in joint space. Furthermore, by investigating the effect of the walking condition on the decomposed patterns, the position and the tilt of the constraint plane was found to change significantly, while the loop pattern on the constraint plane was shown to be robust. This result indicates that humans select only certain kinematic characteristics for adapting to various walking conditions.
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Equilibrium constraints do not affect the timing of muscular synergies during the initiation of a whole body reaching movement. Exp Brain Res 2010; 203:147-58. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-010-2219-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2009] [Accepted: 03/05/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Ruget H, Blouin J, Coyle T, Mouchnino L. Modulation of proprioceptive inflow when initiating a step influences postural adjustments. Exp Brain Res 2009; 201:297-305. [PMID: 19834696 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-009-2035-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2009] [Accepted: 09/25/2009] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
A synergistic inclination of the whole body towards the supporting leg is required when producing a stepping movement. It serves to shift the centre of mass towards the stance foot. While the importance of sensory information in the setting of this postural adjustment is undisputed, it is currently unknown the extent to which proprioceptive afferences (Ia) give rise to postural regulation during stepping movement when the availability of other sensory information relying on static linear acceleration (gravity) is no longer sensed in microgravity. We tested this possibility asking subjects to step forward with their eyes closed in normo- and microgravity environments. At the onset of the stepping movement, we vibrated the ankle muscles acting in the lateral direction to induce modification of the afferent inflow (Ia fibres). Vibration-evoked movement (perceived movement) was in the same direction as the forthcoming body shift towards the supporting side (current movement). A control condition was performed without vibration. In both environments, when vibration was applied, the hip shift towards the supporting side decreased. These postural modifications occurred, however, earlier in normogravity before initiating the stepping movement than in microgravity (i.e. during the completion of the stepping movement). Our results suggest that proprioceptive information induced by vibration and afferent inflow related to body movement exaggerated sense of movement. This biased perception led to the postural adjustment decrease. We propose that in both environments, proprioceptive inflow enables the subject to scale the postural adjustments, provided that body motion-induced afferences are present to activate this postural control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hélène Ruget
- Laboratoire Neurobiologie de la Cognition, CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université, 3 place Victor Hugo, 13331, Marseille cedex 3, France
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