Muscle Synergy Adaptation During A Complex Postural Stabilization Task*

Abstract

The organization of encoded motor modules or motor primitives in the central nervous system and their combination leads to different aspects of natural motor behavior. It is believed that neural stimulation of these coded sections activates specific groups of muscles to achieve a behavioral goal. We use the muscle synergy (MS) hypothesis to compare activation patterns during overground walking and slackline walking for a small group of highly proficient slackliners and beginners. Synchronous MS were extracted using factor analysis (FA) for rhythmic and arrhythmic repertoire of movement. The results revealed no significant difference between slackliners and non-slackliners as the extracted synergies were dependent on the variability of the task. Besides, the shared dimensional space revealed the task-specific higher loading of the quadriceps muscles for walking with such postural constraints.