The effects of isometric hand grip force on wrist kinematics and forearm muscle activity during radial and ulnar wrist joint perturbations

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to investigate forearm muscle activity and wrist angular displacement during radial and ulnar wrist perturbations across various isometric hand grip demands. Surface electromyography (EMG) was recorded from eight muscles of the upper extremity. A robotic device delivered perturbations to the hand in the radial and ulnar directions across four pre-perturbation grip magnitudes. Angular displacement and time to peak displacement following perturbations were evaluated. Muscle activity was evaluated pre- and post-perturbation. Results showed an inverse relationship between grip force and angular displacement (p ≤ 0.001). Time to peak displacement decreased as grip force increased (p ≤ 0.001). There was an increase in muscle activity with higher grip forces across all muscles both pre-and post-perturbation (p ≤ 0.001) and a greater average muscle activity in ulnar as compared to radial deviation (p = 0.02). This work contributes to the wrist joint stiffness literature by relating wrist angular displacement to grip demands during novel radial/ulnar perturbations and provides insight into neuromuscular control strategies.

Grip force makes wrist joint position sense worse

“…As a result, pain can impair proprioception both in the peripheral and central nervous systems. Another possible source of the reposition errors considered here was the increased muscle stiffness ( Holmes et al, 2015 ; Weinman et al, 2021 ; Mannella et al, 2022 ). Increased muscle stiffness during grip-strength tasks may change proprioceptive receptor responses, such as the responses of the muscle spindles, which would impact the wrist joint position sense ( Gregory et al, 1988 ; Bower et al, 2006 ; Holmes et al, 2011 ; Naderi et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Other studies have focused on determining how a constant grip force affects wrist joint ROM ( Marshall et al, 1999 ; Dimartino et al, 2004 ) and found that as grip force increased, wrist joint ROM decreased. Increasing grip force was also considered one determinant of wrist stiffness ( Holmes et al, 2015 ; Weinman et al, 2021 ; Mannella et al, 2022 ).…”