Behavior of medial gastrocnemius motor units during postural reactions to external perturbations after stroke

The ankle plantar flexors are the main muscles controlling standing balance during anteriorly-directed sways (Di Giulio et al., 2009; Tokuno et al., 2007); this is often referred to as the “ankle strategy” (Winter et al., 1998). The medial gastrocnemius muscle has been suggested to be particularly active with anterior sways of increased magnitude (Di Giulio et al., 2009; Vieira et al., 2012) and gastrocnemius muscles have been shown to modulate with centre of mass (COM) velocity and anterior–posterior centre of pressure (APCOP) velocity and excursion during quiet stance (Gatev et al., 1999; Masani et al., 2003; Vieira et al., 2012).

Source: Clinical Neurophysiology - December 29, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: C.L. Pollock, T.D. Ivanova, M.A. Hunt, S.J. Garland Source Type: research