Ortega-Auriol Pablo, Byblow Winston D, Ren April Xiaoge, Besier Thor, McMorland Angus J C
Department of Exercise Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Exp Brain Res. 2025 Jan 8;243(1):40. doi: 10.1007/s00221-024-06953-1.
This study explores the role of task constraints over muscle synergies expression in the context of upper limb motor impairment after stroke. We recruited nine chronic stroke survivors with upper limb impairments and fifteen healthy controls, who performed a series of tasks designed to evoke muscle synergies through various spatial explorations. These tasks included an isometric force task, a dynamic reaching task, the clinical Fugl-Meyer (FM) assessment, and a pinch task. Electromyographic data from 16 upper limb muscles were collected during each task, alongside intermuscular coherence (IMC) measurements during the pinch task to assess neuromuscular connectivity. The findings confirm that motor impairment is inversely related to the diversity of muscle synergies, with fewer synergies and more stereotypical synergy structures observed post-stroke. The study further reveals that the nature of motor tasks significantly affects the number of identifiable muscle synergies, with less constrained tasks revealing a broader array of synergies. These findings highlight the importance of carefully selecting motor tasks in the context of clinical research and assessments to understand a patient's motor impairment, thus aiding in developing tailored rehabilitation strategies.
本研究探讨了任务约束在中风后上肢运动功能障碍背景下对肌肉协同作用表达的影响。我们招募了9名患有上肢功能障碍的慢性中风幸存者和15名健康对照者，他们执行了一系列旨在通过各种空间探索来诱发肌肉协同作用的任务。这些任务包括等长力量任务、动态伸手任务、临床Fugl-Meyer（FM）评估和捏取任务。在每个任务期间收集来自16块上肢肌肉的肌电图数据，同时在捏取任务期间进行肌间相干性（IMC）测量以评估神经肌肉连接性。研究结果证实，运动功能障碍与肌肉协同作用的多样性呈负相关，中风后观察到的协同作用较少且协同结构更具刻板性。该研究进一步表明，运动任务的性质显著影响可识别的肌肉协同作用的数量，约束较少的任务揭示出更广泛的协同作用。这些发现凸显了在临床研究和评估中仔细选择运动任务对于理解患者运动功能障碍的重要性，从而有助于制定个性化的康复策略。
