Antagonist muscle co-activation during straight walking and its relation to kinematics: Insight from young, elderly and Parkinson's disease

Arias, Pablo; Espinosa, Nelson; Robles-García, Verónica; Cao, Ricardo; Cudeiro, Javier

doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2012.03.033

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In some instances, an overlap strategy may be considered as a "higher functioning" strategy. For example, motor learning using co-contractions can provide more movement control and smoother movement 31, 32 . However, in other cases, overlapping movements may be considered as a poorer strategy, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition Between the Timed up and Go Turn to Sit Subtasks: Is Timing Everything?

Weiss

Mirelman

Giladi

et al. 2016

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective The Timed Up and Go (TUG), one of the most widely used tests of mobility, has been validated and associated with adverse outcomes in the community, acute care and nursing home setting. It is composed of several distinct subtasks, however, the temporal relationship when transitioning between subtasks has not been well-studied. We tested the hypothesis that longer transition durations between the final turn to the sitting subtasks are associated with worse motor and cognitive performance in older adults. Methods 1,055 participants (80.33±7.57 yrs, 76.96% female) performed the TUG while wearing a 3-D inertial sensor on their lower back. We employed a series of linear regressions to examine the association of the duration between the turn and sitting subtasks with clinical characteristics including motor and cognitive functions. Results Subjects employed two different strategies when they transitioned from turning to sitting: (1) Distinct Transition strategy (DTS): 816 participants (77.34%) first completed the turn before starting to sit. The average duration between these distinct subtasks (D-interval) was 715±980msec. (2) Overlapping Transition strategy (OTS): 239 participants (22.65%) started to sit before completing the turn. The average overlap duration between these tasks (O-interval) was 237±269msec. Participants who employed the DTS were slightly younger than those who employed the OTS (p≤0.013). Higher D-intervals and O-intervals were associated with worse TUG performance (p≤0.02), with poorer motor and cognitive function, i.e. worse parkinsonian gait (p≤0.001), lower level of perceptual speed (p≤0.03), and with worse mobility disability (p≤0.001). A longer D-interval was associated with worse gait speed and bradykinesia (p≤0.001), while a longer O-interval was associated with increased rigidity (p=0.004). Conclusion Older adults apparently employ two different strategies when transitioning from turning to sitting. The instrumented TUG can characterize additional gait and balance aspects that cannot be derived from traditional TUG assessments. These new measures offer novel targets for intervention to decrease the burden of late-life gait impairment.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition Between the Timed up and Go Turn to Sit Subtasks: Is Timing Everything?

Weiss

Mirelman

Giladi

et al. 2016

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Clinically, spastic co-contraction opposes voluntary movement and contributes to impairment in active function, which was seen clearly in our subjects in this group where attempted wrist extension produced paradoxical wrist flexion. While some degree of co-activation between the agonist and antagonist muscles is normal during movement and necessary for joint stability, better movement accuracy and energy efficiency during functional activities, it has been shown to decrease with skill training (80–82). However, its persistence post-stroke signals disrupted reciprocal inhibition of antagonist muscles (83).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Auditory Constraints on Motor Performance Depends on Stage of Recovery Post-Stroke

Aluru

Leung

et al. 2014

Front. Neurol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In order to develop evidence-based rehabilitation protocols post-stroke, one must first reconcile the vast heterogeneity in the post-stroke population and develop protocols to facilitate motor learning in the various subgroups. The main purpose of this study is to show that auditory constraints interact with the stage of recovery post-stroke to influence motor learning. We characterized the stages of upper limb recovery using task-based kinematic measures in 20 subjects with chronic hemiparesis. We used a bimanual wrist extension task, performed with a custom-made wrist trainer, to facilitate learning of wrist extension in the paretic hand under four auditory conditions: (1) without auditory cueing; (2) to non-musical happy sounds; (3) to self-selected music; and (4) to a metronome beat set at a comfortable tempo. Two bimanual trials (15 s each) were followed by one unimanual trial with the paretic hand over six cycles under each condition. Clinical metrics, wrist and arm kinematics, and electromyographic activity were recorded. Hierarchical cluster analysis with the Mahalanobis metric based on baseline speed and extent of wrist movement stratified subjects into three distinct groups, which reflected their stage of recovery: spastic paresis, spastic co-contraction, and minimal paresis. In spastic paresis, the metronome beat increased wrist extension, but also increased muscle co-activation across the wrist. In contrast, in spastic co-contraction, no auditory stimulation increased wrist extension and reduced co-activation. In minimal paresis, wrist extension did not improve under any condition. The results suggest that auditory task constraints interact with stage of recovery during motor learning after stroke, perhaps due to recruitment of distinct neural substrates over the course of recovery. The findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms of progression of motor recovery and lay the foundation for personalized treatment algorithms post-stroke.

show abstract

“…Patients with a variety of neurological disorders show increased levels of muscle coactivation. In particular, increased coactivation has been described as typical of Parkinsonian rigidity (Arias et al 2012;Hirai et al 2015), spasticity of both spinal and supraspinal origin (Hammond et al 1988;Hirai et al 2015;Rinaldi et al 2017), cerebral palsy (Richards and Malouin 2013), dystonic disorders (Hughes and McLellan 1985), vestibular disorders (Keshner et al 1987), cerebellar disorders (Mari et al 2014), and stroke (Kitatani et al 2016). In particular, Rinaldi et al (2017) have documented correlation between indices of muscle coactivation and the Ashworth index of spasticity.…”

Section: Coactivation Patterns Across Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Muscle coactivation: definitions, mechanisms, and functions

Latash

2018

Journal of Neurophysiology

175

147

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The phenomenon of agonist-antagonist muscle coactivation is discussed with respect to its consequences for movement mechanics (such as increasing joint apparent stiffness, facilitating faster movements, and effects on action stability), implication for movement optimization, and involvement of different neurophysiological structures. Effects of coactivation on movement stability are ambiguous and depend on the effector representing a kinematic chain with a fixed origin or free origin. Furthermore, coactivation is discussed within the framework of the equilibrium-point hypothesis and the idea of hierarchical control with spatial referent coordinates. Relations of muscle coactivation to changes in one of the basic commands, the c-command, are discussed and illustrated. A hypothesis is suggested that agonist-antagonist coactivation reflects a deliberate neural control strategy to preserve effector-level control and avoid making it degenerate and facing the necessity to control at the level of signals to individual muscles. This strategy, in particular, allows stabilizing motor actions by covaried adjustments in spaces of control variables. This hypothesis is able to account for higher levels of coactivation in young healthy persons performing challenging tasks and across various populations with movement impairments.

show abstract

Antagonist muscle co-activation during straight walking and its relation to kinematics: Insight from young, elderly and Parkinson's disease

Cited by 36 publications

References 27 publications

Transition Between the Timed up and Go Turn to Sit Subtasks: Is Timing Everything?

Transition Between the Timed up and Go Turn to Sit Subtasks: Is Timing Everything?

Effect of Auditory Constraints on Motor Performance Depends on Stage of Recovery Post-Stroke

Muscle coactivation: definitions, mechanisms, and functions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About