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Related Concept Videos

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Nine muscles are involved in arm movements. Two of these, the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi, originate from the axial skeleton and are called axial muscles. The other seven originate from the scapula and are called the scapular muscles.
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The muscles that move the forearms can be divided into four groups: forearm flexors, forearm extensors, forearm pronators, and forearm supinators. The flexors and extensors act on the elbow joint, while the pronators and supinators act on the radioulnar joints.
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The biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis are forearm flexors. The biceps brachii is made up of two heads. Its long head originates at the supraglenoid tubercle of the scapula, whereas that of the short head is...
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The muscles of the forearm that move the wrist, hand, and digits are numerous and diverse. They can be classified into two groups based on their location and function — the anterior and posterior compartment muscles.
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Muscle coordination is a complex and finely tuned process essential for smooth and purposeful movements like flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, and rotation. The human body orchestrates the actions of various muscles working in concert, each with a specific role. Four functional types describe how muscles work together: agonist, antagonist, synergist, and fixator.
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Smooth muscles are an important type of muscle tissue that plays a vital role in the involuntary movements of internal organs. For example, they help regulate the movement of food through the gut and the flow of blood through the circulatory system.
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Skeletal muscle fibers have the unique ability to switch between rest and contraction states, using different sources of ATP for energy. The contraction cycle and Ca2+ transport back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum for relaxation require significant ATP. However, the ATP reserves in muscle fibers are limited and can only sustain contractions for a few seconds. Additional ATP production becomes necessary for prolonged contractions. As a result, muscle fibers generate ATP through various sources,...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 9, 2025

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles
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The energetic basis for smooth human arm movements.

Jeremy D Wong1, Tyler Cluff1,2, Arthur D Kuo1

  • 1University of Calgary, Faculty of Kinesiology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Calgary, Canada.

Elife
|December 20, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Human movement planning is economical. Jerkier motions cost more metabolic energy due to muscle activation costs, explaining movement smoothness and duration.

Keywords:
arm movementscalcium pumpingcomputational biologyenergetic costhumanminimum variancemotor controlneuroscienceoptimal controlsystems biology

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Area of Science:

  • Motor control
  • Neuroscience
  • Biomechanics

Background:

  • Human reaching movements exhibit smooth trajectories and consistent durations.
  • Smoothness is often linked to accuracy, while duration is linked to energy economy.
  • Current models do not fully reconcile these objectives with energy expenditure.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the energy cost associated with muscle force production rate.
  • To determine if this cost explains the smoothness of human reaching movements.
  • To propose a unified mechanism for movement smoothness and duration.

Main Methods:

  • Experimental testing of energy cost in 10 human participants.
  • Participants performed cyclical bimanual reaching movements.
  • Analysis of metabolic energy expenditure related to muscle activation.

Main Results:

  • Smoothness is energetically economical, as jerky motions incur higher metabolic costs.
  • The proposed mechanism, related to calcium transport for muscle activation, predicts observed movement smoothness.
  • Empirical energy cost data successfully predicted smooth, discrete reaches.

Conclusions:

  • Movement smoothness is an economical strategy, not solely driven by accuracy.
  • A physiological energy cost proportional to the rate of muscle force production explains movement economy.
  • This unified mechanism resolves motor redundancy in reaching movements.