RELATIONS BETWEEN JOINT TORQUE, MOTION, AND ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC PATTERNS AT THE HUMAN ELBOW

Voluntary movements may be considered kinematic actions resulting from the neural control patterns that activate the motoneuron pools, One s chool of thought proposes that specific features of the intended kinem atic trajectory such as the duration of acceleration are used by the c entral nervous system to plan muscle activation patterns. Our own expe rience suggests that it is the intended force trajectory that is direc ted by muscle activation patterns. Although under many circumstances t hese two approaches lead to indistinguishable behavior patterns, examp les of movements that are incompatible with the former but not the lat ter approach are presented in this manuscript.