Hysteresis and Synergy of the Central Commands to Muscles Participating in Parafrontal Upper Limb Movements

The averaged electromyograms (EMGs) were registered from the arm muscles of ten subjects in movements of the right hand performed under visual guidance on the horizontal plane along linear trajectories going parallel to the frontal plane at various distances from the trunk. The tests consisted of the steady movements (speed 4 cm/s) between two points symmetrical about the shoulder axis; the hand moved firstly from left to right, then in the opposite direction. The tests repeated ten times for each of two equal loads (10.2 N) applied to the hand along movement trajectory in the right- (F(r)) or leftward (F(l)) directions. The elbow and shoulder flexors reacted predominantly on F(r) loads; the extensors were mostly activated by F(l) loads. Positional changes of the averaged EMGs in both flexor and extensor muscles belonging to different joints demonstrated hysteresis properties; the respective hysteresis loops had counterclockwise direction in flexors and clockwise in extensors. The muscles predominantly opposing the loading forces of a given direction participate in a cocontraction mode as antagonists when the direction of load is changed; in this case, together with a decrease in the amplitude of the hysteresis loops, their direction is also reversed. The multiplication index of synergy (MIS), which is based on multiplication of the respective normalized averaged EMG records, has been proposed to evaluate quantitatively changes in the synergy effects between various muscle groups. For distal shifts of the movement traces, the synergy effects are shown to be changed in different directions, increasing in flexors and decreasing in extensors. The obtained results demonstrate that the muscle hysteresis leads to strong modification of the central commands during movements.