Effects of Mental Effort on Premotor Muscle Activity and Maximal Grip Force.

The present study sought to evaluate how mental effort modulates premotor activity within forearm muscles in the context of an isometric grasping task. Muscle activity of the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) and extensor digitorum communis (EDC) was recorded during the application of maximum grip forces in nineteen healthy adult subjects. Each subject was examined under two experimental conditions: 1) spontaneous initiation of grasp (SI) and 2) focused concentration preceding the initiation of grasp (CA).

The effect of the preparation instruction on the functional connectivity between forearm muscles during movement's initiation.

This study investigates the effect of preparation warning on the functional connectivity between forearm muscles during movement's initiation. The Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) is the used indicator. It is calculated for muscle pairs activated during a handgrip exercice.