Effect of combined variation of force amplitude and rate of force development on the modulation characteristics of muscle activation during rapid isometric aiming force production.

Studies of rapid target-directed limb movements have suggested that various control schemes can be defined by the modulation pattern of the muscle activity. The present study was aimed to address the question regarding the extent to which a simultaneous control of force amplitude, and rate of force development influences the modulation characteristics of muscle activation associated with producing rapid isometric aiming forces at the elbow joint. The subjects were instructed to produce rapid isometric force pulses to three different force amplitudes (15, 35, and 55% of their maximal voluntary contractions) under systematically varied force-rate conditions ranging from a fast and accurate force-rate to the fastest force-rate possible. The results showed that larger force amplitudes were achieved by increasing the rate of force development (d F/d t) while the time to peak force remained relatively constant. The magnitude of the electromyographic (EMG) burst systematically increased as a function of force amplitude at all force-rate conditions. The primary finding was that the characteristic of the EMG burst duration associated with different force amplitudes showed a significant difference among force-rate conditions. Under a fast and accurate force-rate condition, the duration of the agonist burst increased linearly with force amplitude. A gradual transition into a fixed duration of the agonist burst then was observed over the remaining three force-rate requirements. With increasingly faster force-rates, there were no changes in the agonist burst duration over three force amplitudes. These results indicate that the combined variations in force amplitude and force-rate examined relative to the most rapid force-rate influence the control patterns for the muscle activation during the fast isometric force production. Changes in the EMG modulation patterns observed are likely due to the constraints imposed by muscle contractile properties.