The effect of handedness on electromyographic activity of human shoulder muscles during movement

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate whether there was a difference in the electromyographic (EMG) activity of human shoulder muscles between the dominant and nondominant side during movement and to explore whether a possible side-difference depends on the specific task. We compared the EMG activity with surface and intramuscular electrodes in eight muscles of both shoulders in 20 healthy subjects whose hand preference was evaluated using a standard questionnaire. EMG signals were recorded during abduction and external rotation. During abduction, the normalized EMG activity was significantly smaller on the dominant side compared to the nondominant side for all the muscles except for infraspinatus and lower trapezius ( P ⩽ 0.002). In contrast, during external rotation, higher EMG activity was seen in the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, lower and upper trapezius and latissimus muscles of the dominant side ( P ⩽ 0.01). We demonstrated a side-difference in shoulder muscle activity, which was dependent on the type of motion carried out, suggesting a qualitative difference in the activation of muscles during the two types of movement. Dynamic abduction has the characteristics of a dominant arm task (i.e., task performed almost exclusively by the dominant arm) and reduced muscle activity for the dominant side during abduction indicates a dominance-related advantage in arm dynamics.