TY - JOUR
T1 - Proprioceptive control of multijoint movement
T2 - Unimanual circle drawing
AU - Verschueren, Sabine M.P.
AU - Swinnen, Stephan P.
AU - Cordo, Paul J.
AU - Dounskaia, Natalia V.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This research was supported by a grant awarded to Stephan Swinnen from the Research Council of the K.U. Leuven (OT/94/30) and from the Fund For Scientific Research, Flanders, Belgium (S 2/5-ID. F295). S. Verschueren is a research associate with the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders, Belgium. N. Dounskaia was supported by fellowship no. F/95/51 from the Research Council of K.U. Leuven. P. Cordo was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (R01 AR31017).
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - The present experiments addressed whether proprioception is used by the central nervous system (CNS) to control the spatial and temporal characteristics of unimanual circle drawing. Circle drawing is a multijoint movement, in which the muscles crossing the elbow and the shoulder are sequentially activated. The spatial and temporal characteristics of circle drawing depend on the precise coordination of these sequential activation patterns, and proprioception is ideally suited to support this coordination. Blindfolded human subjects produced a counterclockwise circular drawing motion (diameter = 16 cm) with the dominant arm at a repetition rate of 1/s. In some trials, 60-70 Hz vibration was applied to the tendons of the biceps brachii and/or the anterior deltoid. Spatial parameters measured from hand-movement data included the x- and y-axis diameters, circularity, and drift of the hand in the workspace. Vibration of either the biceps brachii or the anterior deltoid caused subjects to draw circles with decreased diameter, with changes in circularity, and with a systematic drift of the hand. These distortions to circle drawing by tendon vibration demonstrate that the CNS uses proprioceptive information to accomplish the spatial characteristics of this motor task. Simultaneous vibration of both muscles produced a drift that exceeded the individual vibration effects, which suggests that the CNS combined proprioceptive information related to elbow and shoulder rotation to control the movement of the hand. The temporal characteristics of circle drawing were quantified from joint angle data. While vibration did not significantly influence the relative phase between elbow and shoulder rotation, the variability of the phase relationship increased significantly, which suggests that proprioception contributes to phase stabilization. During circle drawing, elbow flexion-extension movements were produced with limited activation of the biceps. Nevertheless, biceps vibration distorted the circle metrics, suggesting that a muscle's significance as a sensory transducer is independent of its activity level.
AB - The present experiments addressed whether proprioception is used by the central nervous system (CNS) to control the spatial and temporal characteristics of unimanual circle drawing. Circle drawing is a multijoint movement, in which the muscles crossing the elbow and the shoulder are sequentially activated. The spatial and temporal characteristics of circle drawing depend on the precise coordination of these sequential activation patterns, and proprioception is ideally suited to support this coordination. Blindfolded human subjects produced a counterclockwise circular drawing motion (diameter = 16 cm) with the dominant arm at a repetition rate of 1/s. In some trials, 60-70 Hz vibration was applied to the tendons of the biceps brachii and/or the anterior deltoid. Spatial parameters measured from hand-movement data included the x- and y-axis diameters, circularity, and drift of the hand in the workspace. Vibration of either the biceps brachii or the anterior deltoid caused subjects to draw circles with decreased diameter, with changes in circularity, and with a systematic drift of the hand. These distortions to circle drawing by tendon vibration demonstrate that the CNS uses proprioceptive information to accomplish the spatial characteristics of this motor task. Simultaneous vibration of both muscles produced a drift that exceeded the individual vibration effects, which suggests that the CNS combined proprioceptive information related to elbow and shoulder rotation to control the movement of the hand. The temporal characteristics of circle drawing were quantified from joint angle data. While vibration did not significantly influence the relative phase between elbow and shoulder rotation, the variability of the phase relationship increased significantly, which suggests that proprioception contributes to phase stabilization. During circle drawing, elbow flexion-extension movements were produced with limited activation of the biceps. Nevertheless, biceps vibration distorted the circle metrics, suggesting that a muscle's significance as a sensory transducer is independent of its activity level.
KW - Humans
KW - Interjoint coordination
KW - Multijoint movement
KW - Proprioception
KW - Tendon vibration
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U2 - 10.1007/s002210050787
DO - 10.1007/s002210050787
M3 - Article
C2 - 10442409
AN - SCOPUS:0032996574
SN - 0014-4819
VL - 127
SP - 171
EP - 181
JO - Experimental Brain Research
JF - Experimental Brain Research
IS - 2
ER -