Prior history of FDI muscle contraction: different effect on MEP amplitude and muscle activity

Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation of left motor cortex were assessed in ten healthy subjects during maintenance of a fixed FDI contraction level. Subjects maintained an integrated EMG (IEMG) level with visual feedback and reproduced this level by memory afterwards in the following tasks: stationary FDI muscle contraction at the level of 40 ± 5 % of its maximum voluntary contraction (MVC; 40 % task), at the level of 20 ± 5 % MVC (20 % task), and also when 20 % MVC was preceded by either no contraction (0-20 task), by stronger muscle contraction (40-20 task) or by no contraction with a previous strong contraction (40-0-20 task). The results show that the IEMG level was within the prescribed limits when 20 and 40 % stationary tasks were executed with and without visual feedback. In 0-20, 40-20, and 40-0-20 tasks, 20 % IEMG level was precisely controlled in the presence of visual feedback, but without visual feedback the IEMG and force during 20 % IEMG maintenance were significantly higher in the 40-0-20 task than those in 0-20 and 40-20 tasks. That is, without visual feedback, there were significant variations in muscle activity due to different prehistory of contraction. In stationary tasks, MEP amplitudes in 40 % task were higher than in 20 % task. MEPs did not differ significantly during maintenance of the 20 % level in tasks with different prehistory of muscle contraction with and without visual feedback. Thus, in spite of variations in muscle background activity due to different prehistory of contraction MEPs did not vary significantly. This dissociation suggests that the voluntary maintenance of IEMG level is determined not only by cortical mechanisms, as reflected by corticospinal excitability, but also by lower levels of CNS, where afferent signals and influences from other brain structures and spinal cord are convergent.