An EMG-level muscle model for a fast arm movement to target

A model of human muscle action is presented for a maximally fast, large-amplitude forearm movement to target. The inputs to the model are approximately the biceps and triceps EMG envelopes over a single movement. The model's output gives the corresponding displacement angle of the forearm about a fixed elbow position as a function of time. The idea of the model is to conceive of both EMG input drives as successions of millisecond input pulses, with each pulse resulting in a muscle tension twitch. Every twitch is amplitude-scaled, parametrically-shaped, and duration-limited as a function of the muscle's contractile history thus far in the movement. The muscle tension at any time t is the sum of the residual tension levels of all twitches begun before t. The model was developed and tested with special reference to two subjects: one, according to the model dynamics, was a comparatively slow-twitch type and the other modelled as a fast-twitch type. Good agreement was found between model output and subject response data whenever the subject's EMG's were "synchronous". The model can be used to characterize each subject's responses by a suite of twitch characteristics. This will enable us to check the accepted but now suspect correlation between muscle biopsy- and performance-determined muscle twitch type.