MOVESCI 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Muscle Atrophy, Motor Coordination, Motor Cortex
Document Summary
This lab looks at movement kinematic characteristics like velocity, which can be determined by the pattern of muscle activity in opposing muscle groups, like biceps brachii and triceps brachii which are used in this experiment. The purpose of this lab is to determine how speed effects muscle activation patterns during rhythmic and discrete arm movements. Reciprocal activation patterns should be observed to show the timing of the agonist and antagonist muscle movements which in this case are the biceps and triceps brachii. When moving in a phasic manner, the triceps brachii and biceps brachii muscle activity should alternate with rhythmic as well as discrete movement. When one is more active, the other should be only slightly active or not active at all. This experiment is important because it shows how different sequences of movement effect things like velocity, magnitude, and duration. These aspects of movement can be important in diagnosing problems a person might have with different motor areas.
