Evaluation of antagonist coactivation strategies elicited from electrically stimulated muscles under load-moving conditions

Muscle coactivation strategies that produce ankle dorsiflexion and plantar flexion were elicited by electrical stimulation of the tibialis anterior (TA) and soleus (SOL) muscles of the cat, and examined under several loading conditions. Four different load types were used: free-limb motion (no load), flywheel, and 2 pendulums, each with a different lever arm. Three types of coactivation strategies were considered. The first coactivation strategy consisted of antagonist activity that decreased as the agonist activity increased. The second strategy consisted of increasing antagonist activity with increasing agonist activity. And, in the third strategy, antagonist coactivation decreased at low force levels, then increased at high force levels. The three strategies were evaluated based on the joint angle´s peak-to-peak movement and its ability to track a linear input command given by the correlation coefficient of the output signal versus linear input. Results showed that increasing antagonist activity resulted in decreasing peak-to-peak angle and a decreased signal tracking capability for each load condition. The latter, however, was not as obvious in the flywheel load (as compared with free-moving and pendulum conditions). A decreasing peak-to-peak torque for pendulum loads was also observed with increasing antagonist activity. In all loading conditions, maximal peak-to-peak angle and torque were present, when a moderate degree of antagonist activity was engaged, and signal tracking capability improved with earlier engagement of the antagonist muscles. It is suggested that strategies using a combination of low-level coactivation, as described in the physiological literature and previous functional electrical stimulation (FES) studies, could satisfactorily address the issues of controllability and efficiency while maintaining long-term joint integrity.