The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 81 No. 5 May 1999, pp. 2215-2225
Copyright ©1999 by the American Physiological Society

Contact-Evoked Changes in EMG Activity During Human Grasp

 ¹Division of Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Edmonton T6G 2S2; and  ²Department of Anesthesiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2B7, Canada

Collins, D. F., B. Knight, and A. Prochazka. Contact-Evoked Changes in EMG Activity During Human Grasp. J. Neurophysiol. 81: 2215-2225, 1999.Contact-evoked changes in EMG activity during human grasp. 2215 Cutaneous receptors in the digits discharge bursts of activity on contact with an object during human grasp. In this study, we investigated the contribution of this sensory activity to the responses of muscles involved in the task. Twelve subjects performed a standardized precision grasp task without the aid of vision. Electromyographic (EMG) responses in trials when the object was present were compared with those in which the object, and hence the associated afferent responses, were unexpectedly absent. Significant differences in EMG amplitude occurred in the interval 50-100 ms after contact in all subjects and in 33/46 of the muscles sampled. The differences emerged as early as 34 ms after contact and comprised as much as a fourfold change in EMG from 50 to 100 ms after contact with the object. Typically, EMG responses were larger when the object was present (OP), though there were cases, particularly in the thenar muscles, in which the responses increased when the object was absent (OA). Local anesthesia of the thumb and index finger attenuated contact-evoked EMG activity in at least one muscle in all four subjects tested. In one subject, contact-evoked responses were abolished completely during the anesthesia in all four muscles sampled. The results indicate that the sensory activity signaling contact plays a key role in regulating EMG activity during human grasp. Much of this feedback action is attributable to cutaneous receptors in the digits and probably involves both spinal and supraspinal pathways.