Study of the average FR of the MUAP's in a couple of agonist-antagonist muscles / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

"Common Drive" is presented recently as a new concept used to explore the control mechanism of neuromuscular system. In this paper, the average firing rate (FR) of the motor unit action potential (MUAP) is estimated by means of decomposition technique for needle electromyographic (NEMG) signals obtained from elbow joint agonist-antagonist muscle pair with constant contraction force. The change tendency and correlation of the average FR with time are studied. The results of the experiment show that, no matter flexion or extension of the elbow joint, the average FR of both motor units(MUs) in the couple of agonist and antagonist descends with time, and the variations of their amplitude and fluctuation are highly correlated. This indicates that when two antagonist muscles are activated simultaneously to stiffen a joint, the nervous system views them as one unit and controls them in similar fashion. It also confirms the existence of "Common Drive" phenomenon at joint level.