EMG patterns in antagonist muscles during isometric contraction in man: relations to response dynamics

We studied the EMG activity of biceps and triceps in human subjects during isometric force adjustments at the elbow. Rapid targeted force pulses exhibited stereotyped trajectories in which peak force was a linear function of the derivatives of force and the time to peak force was largely independent of its amplitude. These responses were associated with an alternating triphasic pattern of EMG bursts in agonist and antagonist muscles similar to that previously described for rapid limb movements. When the instructions demanded rapid force pulses, initial agonist bursts were of constant duration, and their magnitude was strongly related to peak force achieved. The timing of EMG bursts in antagonist pairs was closely coupled to the dynamics of the force trajectory, and the rising phase of the force was determined by both agonist and antagonist bursts. When peak force was kept constant and rise time systematically varied, the presence and magnitude of antagonist and late agonist bursts were dependent on the rate of rise of force, appearing at a threshold value and then increasing in proportion to this parameter. It is proposed that antagonist activity compensates for nonlinearity in muscle properties to enable the linear scaling of targeted forces which characterizes performance in this task.