Dual task-related changes in the synchronous activity of wrist extensor type-identified motor units in humans

Abstract

The coupling between the firings of 33 pairs of motor units tested in the extensor carpi radialis muscles was evaluated by cross-correlation analysis and compared during isometric wrist extension and hand clenching. A slightly greater amount of synchrony was observed during hand clenching (0.042 - 0.024 vs 0.035 - 0.017 synchronous impulses per trigger). This trend did not reach however the level of significance and the changes were actually found to be heterogeneous: in 15 out of the 33 pairs tested, synchronous activity with a narrow coupling (4.6 - 2.4 ms) consistent with short-term synchrony was greater during hand clenching whereas in nine other pairs, synchronous activity with a broader dispersion (9.0 - 4.5 ms) was reduced. These opposite changes could not be explained in terms of changes in the firing pattern of the motor units and were found instead to correlate with the motor units' biomechanical properties. Motor units with high recruitment thresholds and fast rising twitches showed predominantly an increase in synchrony; whereas the motor unit pairs with low recruitment thresholds and slow twitches showed either an increase or a decrease. The enhanced short-term synchrony suggests that common inputs distributed to motoneurones of all types were more effective during hand clenching whereas the decrease in weakly coupled synchronous activity suggests that other inputs synchronized at a pre-synaptic level and distributed more specifically to motor units recruited at low force levels were less effective. The possible origins of the inputs reflected in the dual changes are discussed in terms of the supra-spinal and peripheral pathways controlling the wrist extensor motoneurones during wrist extension and hand clenching.