Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 34, Issue 1, 23 December 1982, Pages 95-100
Neuroscience Letters

Preferential coupling between voluntary movements of ipsilateral limbs

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(82)90098-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Single or cyclical voluntary movements of flexion and extension of the hand, performed in a parasagittal plane, are immediately and naturally coupled with the same movements of the foot only if the extremities follow simultaneously the same direction. Instead, great care and attention are required to move the two segments in opposite directions, an association which tends to reverse spontaneously to the ‘easy’ pattern. This rule is followed independently of the muscles employed, since it holds both when the hand is prone and when it is supine. The same principle also applies to many other couples of voluntary movements of the ipsilateral limbs or of different segments in the same limb.

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    Data were normalized to restrict segmental angles and corresponding velocity within -1 and +1 using a previously described calculation. ( Baldissera et al., 1982; Haddad et al., 2010; Hamill et al., 1999; Kurz & Stergiou, 2004; Lamb & Stockl, 2014) Phase angles of each segment, which quantify the location of the limb trajectory through time, were calculated from the normalized angular profiles and their derivatives and used to calculate relative phase throughout the movement.( Kurz & Stergiou, 2004) A detailed description of this calculation can be found in Stergiou et al.(Kurz and Stergiou, 2004) Relative phase analysis was used to compute the Continuous Relative Phase, standard deviation of Continuous Relative Phase, MARP, and DP for all limb relationships of interest.

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