MUSCLE ACTIVITY AND THE QUANTIFICATION OF CO-CONTRACTION AT THE KNEE DURING WALKING GAIT

INTRODUCTION It is commonly agreed that one of the greatest challenges in the study of human motion is the development of accurate, non-invasive methods to calculate individual force-time histories during movement [1]. Furthermore, in the field of medicine it is widely advocated that in surgical decisions for the management of such orthopedic conditions as cerebral palsy, muscle balance must be precisely defined if serious physician-caused errors are to be avoided [2]. It was the purpose, therefore, of this study to construct an EMGdriven neuromusculoskeletal model for the prediction and quantification of co-contraction, i.e., muscle balance and imbalance among the individual musculotendon units that comprise the synergistic and antagonistic muscle groups involved in knee flexion/extension during normal walking gait.