Voluntary and reactive recruitment of locomotor muscle synergies
during perturbed walking.  The Wallace H. Coulter Department of
Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University,
Atlanta, Georgia 30322-0535, USA. Journal of Neuroscience
(Impact Factor: 6.91). 08/2012; 32(35):12237-50.
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6344-11.2012 Source: PubMed  ABSTRACT The
modular control of muscles in groups, often referred to as
muscle synergies, has been proposed to provide a motor
repertoire of actions for the robust control of movement.
However, it is not clear whether muscle synergies identified in
one task are also recruited by different neural pathways
subserving other motor behaviors. We tested the hypothesis that
voluntary and reactive modifications to walking in humans result
from the recruitment of locomotor muscle synergies. We recorded
the activity of 16 muscles in the right leg as subjects walked a
7.5 m path at two different speeds. To elicit a second motor
behavior, midway through the path we imposed ramp