Christou, Evangelos A., Minoru Shinohara, and Roger M. Enoka. Fluctuations in acceleration during voluntary contractions lead to greater impairment of movement accuracy in old adults. J Appl Physiol 95: 373-384, 2003. First published March 21, 2003 10.1152/japplphysiol.00060. 2003.-The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of movement velocity on the relation between fluctuations in acceleration and the ability to achieve a target velocity during voluntary contractions performed by young (29.5 Ϯ 4.3 yr) and old (74.9 Ϯ 6.2 yr) adults. Subjects performed concentric and eccentric contractions with the first dorsal interosseus muscle while lifting a submaximal load (15% of maximum) at six movement velocities (0.03-1.16 rad/s). Fluctuations in acceleration, the accuracy of matching the target velocity, and electromyographic (EMG) activity were determined from three trials for each contraction type and movement velocity. The fluctuations in acceleration increased with movement velocity for both concentric and eccentric contractions, but they were greatest during fast eccentric contractions (ϳ135%) when there was stronger modulation of acceleration in the 5-to 10-Hz bandwidth. Nonetheless, EMG amplitude for first dorsal interosseus increased with movement velocity only for concentric and not eccentric contractions. Consistent with the minimum variance theory, movement accuracy was related to the fluctuations in acceleration for both types of contractions in all subjects. For a given level of fluctuations in acceleration, however, old subjects were three times less accurate than young subjects. Although the EMG amplitude at each speed was similar for young and old adults, only the young adults modulated the power in the EMG spectrum with speed. Thus the fluctuations in acceleration during voluntary contractions had a more pronounced effect on movement accuracy for old adults compared with young adults, probably due to factors that influenced the frequency-domain characteristics of the EMG. concentric contraction; eccentric contraction; electromyogram; first dorsal interosseus; frequency spectrum THE FORCE EXERTED BY A MUSCLE during a voluntary contraction is not constant, but rather it fluctuates about an average value (2,15,25,33,36). The neural mechanisms most responsible for the fluctuations in the force exerted by hand muscles appear to be the regularity with which motoneurons discharge action potentials and the common modulation of motor unit discharge in the agonist and antagonist muscles (7,10,13,16,41). Fluctuations in muscle force impose a significant constraint on the ability of the nervous system to control movement by influencing the capacity to exert a desired force and to achieve an intended trajectory (17,18,43).The minimum variance theory postulates that the central nervous system attenuates this constraint during the performance of goal-directed movements by selecting activation strategies that minimize the variance in the trajectory of the movement (18,43). One prediction of this theory is t...