Neuromuscular-Skeletal Origins of Predominant Patterns of Coordination in a Rhythmic Two-Joint Arm Movement

The authors tested for predominant patterns of coordination in the combination of rhythmic flexion-extension (FE) and supination-pronation (SP) at the elbow-joint complex. Participants (N= 10) spontaneously established in-phase (supination synchronized with flexion) and antiphase (pronation synchronized with flexion) patterns. In addition, the authors used a motorized robot arm to generate involuntary SP movements with different phase relations with respect to voluntary FE. The involuntarily induced in-phase pattern was accentuated and was more consistent than other patterns. That result provides evidence that the predominance of the in-phase pattern originates in the influence of neuro-muscular-skeletal constraints rather than in a preference dictated by perceptual-cognitive factors implicated in voluntary control. Neuromuscular-skeletal constraints involved in the predominance of the in-phase and the antiphase patterns are discussed.

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