Handedness but not dominance influences variability in endurance time for sustained, submaximal contractions

Abstract

Gordon NM, Rudroff T, Enoka JA, Enoka RM. Handedness but not dominance influences variability in endurance time for sustained, submaximal contractions. J Neurophysiol 108: 1501-1510. First published June 13, 2012 doi:10.1152/jn.01144.2011The purpose of this study was to compare endurance time and accompanying neuromuscular adjustments when left-and right-handed subjects used the dominant and nondominant arms to sustain submaximal contractions that required either force or position control. Ten left-handed and 10 right-handed healthy adults (21 Ϯ 5 yr) participated in the study. Each subject exerted a similar net torque about the elbow joint during the force and position tasks to achieve a target force of 20% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force (56 Ϯ 18 N). MVC force declined to a similar level immediately after task failure for left-and righthanded subjects (27 Ϯ 13 vs. 25 Ϯ 15%, P ϭ 0.9). Endurance time for the position task was similar for the dominant and nondominant arms (task ϫ dominance interaction, P ϭ 0.17). Although the difference in endurance time between the two tasks was similar for left-handed (136 Ϯ 165 s) and right-handed individuals (92 Ϯ 73 s, task ϫ handedness interaction, P ϭ 0.38), there was greater variance in the ratio of the endurance times for the force and position tasks for left-handed (0.77) than right-handed subjects (0.13, P Ͻ 0.001; see Fig. 2). Furthermore, endurance time for the force and position tasks was significantly correlated for right-handed subjects (r 2 ϭ 0.62, P Ͻ 0.001), but not for left-handed subjects (r 2 ϭ 0.004, P ϭ 0.79). Multiple regression analyses identified sets of predictor variables for each endurance time, and these differed with handedness and task. Hand dominance, however, did not influence endurance time for either group of subjects. These findings indicate that endurance times for the elbow flexors when performing submaximal isometric contractions that required either force or position control were not influenced by hand dominance but did depend on handedness. electromyography; muscle fatigue; task failure THE PREFERENTIAL USE OF ONE ARM during motor tasks is known as hand dominance and defines the handedness of an individual. A right-handed individual, for example, tends to use the right hand to perform most activities of daily living, such as writing, throwing, using scissors, brushing teeth, cutting with a knife, eating with a spoon, striking a match, and opening a box. However, some actions are more commonly performed with the nondominant limb, which results in each arm developing a unique set of motor skills (Adamo and Martin 2009; Bernard et al.

Hand grip fatigability in persons with multiple sclerosis according to hand dominance and disease progression

“…However, no significant difference between hands was found for persons with MS, possibly linked to disease-related muscle weakness (8). Similarly, fatigability was not different between dominant and non-dominant hand, either in healthy controls or in persons with MS. these results are consistent with those of Gordon et al, who reported an equal fatigability of the upper limb in a sample of healthy persons during a submaximal contraction for the dominant and non-dominant arms (20). there were moderate correlations between fatigue indices of the dominant and non-dominant hands and between the more and less affected hands, possibly indicating on a central origin of muscle fatigue, as suggested in previous research (17).…”

“…one may hypothesize a higher fatigability in the non-dominant compared with the dominant hand in persons with MS with higher EdSS scores, since these persons with MS use their dominant arm more in daily life (8). However, if pathological muscle fatigue in persons with MS is mainly of central origin, one could also hypothesize that there would be no difference between dominant and non-dominant hands, nor between the more and less affected sides, which could be supported by reports in healthy persons, stating that fatigability did not seem to differ between dominant and non-dominant hands (20). to our knowledge, the difference in fatigability between dominant and non-dominant hands has not been assessed in persons with MS.…”

Investigation of Fatigability during Repetitive Robot-Mediated Arm Training in People with Multiple Sclerosis

“…The groups were not matched on handedness. This is not likely to cause problems with interpretation of the results, as it was already reported that fatigability does not differ between right-handed and left-handed persons [ 43 ] and only 3 out of 16 PwMS were left-handed. Further, although we aimed to test the dominant arm in all subjects, two PwMS performed the tests with their non-dominant hand.…”

Reliability of surface EMG as an assessment tool for trunk activity and potential to determine neurorecovery in SCI

“…As handedness has been shown to have a significant impact in upper-extremity muscle activity, [14][15][16][17][18][19] the VRIs were All subjects were male (29 ± 4 years of age, 22-36 years of age). Mean height was 177.9 ± 9.3 cm and mean weight was 80.9 ± 8.1 kg.…”