First results concerning early motor reaction during perturbed forearm movement

This work deals with motor control of simple motor acts. In a horizontal circular movement of the forearm involving only triceps and biceps brachii, the authors measured the muscular activity by surface electromyography. They have studied the reaction which takes place in the first 100 ms following the torque perturbation, regarding it as a long latency response. The authors rectified and smoothed this part of the EMG signal and computed the area in a specified window. For five healthy subjects and for the two muscles considered, they have a relationship between the area and the level of the torque.<>