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Biarticular muscles are most responsive to upper-body pitch perturbations in human standing

Schumacher, Christian ; Berry, Andrew ; Lemus, Daniel ; Rode, Christian ; Seyfarth, André ; Vallery, Heike (2019)
Biarticular muscles are most responsive to upper-body pitch perturbations in human standing.
In: Scientific Reports, 2019, 9
Article, Secondary publication, Publisher's Version

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Item Type: Article
Type of entry: Secondary publication
Title: Biarticular muscles are most responsive to upper-body pitch perturbations in human standing
Language: English
Date: 2019
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Year of primary publication: 2019
Publisher: Springer Nature
Journal or Publication Title: Scientific Reports
Volume of the journal: 9
Corresponding Links:
Origin: Secondary publication via sponsored Golden Open Access
Abstract:

Balancing the upper body is pivotal for upright and efficient gait. While models have identified potentially useful characteristics of biarticular thigh muscles for postural control of the upper body, experimental evidence for their specific role is lacking. Based on theoretical findings, we hypothesised that biarticular muscle activity would increase strongly in response to upper-body perturbations. To test this hypothesis, we used a novel Angular Momentum Perturbator (AMP) that, in contrast to existing methods, perturbs the upper-body posture with only minimal effect on Centre of Mass (CoM) excursions. The impulse-like AMP torques applied to the trunk of subjects resulted in upper-body pitch deflections of up to 17° with only small CoM excursions below 2 cm. Biarticular thigh muscles (biceps femoris long head and rectus femoris) showed the strongest increase in muscular activity (mid- and long-latency reflexes, starting 100 ms after perturbation onset) of all eight measured leg muscles which highlights the importance of biarticular muscles for restoring upper-body balance. These insights could be used for improving technological aids like rehabilitation or assistive devices, and the effectiveness of physical training for fall prevention e.g. for elderly people.

Status: Publisher's Version
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-92292
Classification DDC: 700 Arts and recreation > 796 Sports
Divisions: 03 Department of Human Sciences > Institut für Sportwissenschaft
Date Deposited: 30 Oct 2019 08:06
Last Modified: 13 Dec 2022 11:31
URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/9229
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