Cervical Muscle Activation Due to an Applied Force in Response to Different Types of Acoustic Warnings

Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and whiplash-associated disorder are the most common head and neck injuries and result from a sudden head or body acceleration. The head and neck injury potential is correlated with the awareness, level of muscle activation, and posture changes at the time of the perturbation. Environmental acoustic stimuli or a warning system can influence muscle activation and posture during a head perturbation. In this study, different acoustic stimuli, including Non-Directional, Directional, and Startle, were provided 1000 ms before a head impact, and the amplitude and timing of cervical muscle electromyographic (EMG) data were characterized based on the type of warning. The startle warning resulted in 49% faster and 80% greater EMG amplitude compared to the Directional and Non-Directional warnings after warning and before the impact. The post-impact peak EMG amplitudes in Unwarned trials were lower by 18 and 21% in the retraction and rebound muscle groups, respectively, compared to any of the warned conditions. When there was no warning before the impact, the retraction and rebound muscle groups also reached their maximum activation 38 and 54 ms sooner, respectively, compared to the warned trials. Based on these results, the intensity and complexity of information that a warning sound carries change the muscle response before and after a head impact and has implications for injury potential.

Evaluation of surface electromyography of selected neck muscles during the whiplash mechanism in aware and unaware conditions due to safe punching in kickboxing

“…In addition, there was a limitation in collecting the information of these muscles (ES) due to the interference in the neck area. The results are consistent with those of Homayunpour which represented a significantly higher EMG activity of SCM muscle among the subjects sitting in sled who were warned about applying a 20-N force from the back under controlled conditions to induce the whiplash mechanism than the unwarned ones [ 13 ]. Additionally, muscle injuries, especially the stretches caused by contraction, are a function of the pre-activation, strong stretching, and initial length of muscles, all of which are related to the loss of contractile force.…”

“…They reported 7 ms earlier activation of the muscle response in the warned condition compared to the unwarned condition [ 12 ]. Based on the results of another study, the EMG of neck SCM and hyoid muscles in the whiplash mechanism was 49% faster and 80% greater among aware individuals than the unaware ones [ 13 ]. Homayunpour et al determined the EMG of SCM and UP muscles in 18 males and females warned about whiplash mechanism and were subjected to automatic emergency braking.…”