The effect of agonist/antagonist muscle vibration on human position sense |
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Authors: | J T Inglis J S Frank |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1 Waterloo, Ontario, Canada;(2) Present address: Department of Anatomy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
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Abstract: | Summary During voluntary movement, muscle spindles of both the agonist and antagonist muscles potentially can supply information about
position of the limb. Muscle vibration is known to increase muscle spindle discharge and cause systematic distortions of limb
position sense in humans. The following two experiments attempted to examine these contributions by separately vibrating over
the triceps and biceps muscles during forearm positioning. In the first experiment, subjects performed a horizontal flexion
or extension of the right arm to a mechanical stop randomly positioned at 20, 40 or 60°. Vision was occluded and vibration
was applied to the right arm. The perceived position of the right limb was assessed by instructing subjects to simultaneously
match the right arm position with the left limb. Vibration of the shortening, agonist muscle had no effect on limb matching
accuracy. However, antagonist muscle vibration resulted in a significant overestimation of the vibrated limb position by 6–13°.
The procedures for the second experiment were similar to the first, except that movements of the right limb were self-terminated
and only flexion movements were performed. A screen was mounted over the arms and subjects were instructed to move the right
arm until it was positioned beneath a marker on the screen. Vibration of the shortening agonist muscle had no effect on either
the positioning accuracy of the right limb or matching accuracy of the left limb. However, antagonist muscle vibration resulted
in significantly shorter movements (6–10°) by the right limb and an overestimation of right limb position by the left, matching
limb. These findings support the hypothesis that muscle spindle afferent information from the lengthening antagonist muscle
contributes to limb position sense during voluntary movement. |
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Keywords: | Muscle spindles Agonist/antagonist muscle Forearm Human |
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