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Relaxation in distal and proximal arm muscles: a reaction time study
A Buccolieri1, L Avanzino, C Trompetto
1Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics, Section of Neurology, University of Genoa, Italy.
Objective:
To investigate whether the same mechanisms underlie muscle relaxation in proximal and distal arm muscles of normal subjects.
Methods:
Fourteen healthy subjects were studied using a simple visual reaction time paradigm. Relaxation reaction time (R-RT) and contraction reaction time (C-RT) were compared across different tasks involving distal (first dorsal interosseus, FDI, flexor carpi radialis, FCR) and proximal (biceps brachii, BB, triceps brachii, TR) arm muscles. Changes of FCR H-reflex before and during voluntary relaxation were investigated in two subjects.
Results:
No significant difference was observed between R-RT and C-RT in the distal muscles. The R-RT was significantly shorter than C-RT in both the BB and TR muscles. The relaxation latency (R-RT) was significantly correlated to the subjects' age in all the muscles except the FDI. No inhibition of the FCR H-reflex could be observed in the 20 ms preceding muscle relaxation.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that neural mechanisms contribute differently to the relaxation of muscles with a different functional role. Voluntary relaxation in distal arm muscles is mainly related to the reduction of motor cortical output, while in proximal muscles a spinal disfacilitation is also present and possibly sustained by the modulation of presynaptic inhibition.