Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on April 28, 2008
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2008 48(2):261-271; doi:10.1093/icb/icn025
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Electromyography and the evolution of motor control: limitations and insights
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*Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerpen, Belgium; Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, 1027 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Department of Biology, 221 Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA; ¶Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ 86011-5640, USA; ||Instituto de Herpetología, Fundación Miguel Lillo-CONICET, Fac. de Cs. Naturales (UNT) Miguel Lillo 251 4000 Tucumán, Argentina; #CICyTTP-CONICET, Matteri y España (3105), Diamante, Entre Ríos, Argentina
Correspondence: 1E-mail: anthony.herrel{at}ua.ac.be
Electromyography (EMG), or the study of muscle activation patterns, has long been used to infer central nervous system (CNS) control of the musculoskeletal system and the evolution of that control. As the activation of the muscles at the level of the periphery is a reflection of the interaction of descending influences and local reflex control, EMG is an important tool in integrated investigations of the evolution of coordination in complex, musculoskeletal systems. Yet, the use of EMG as a tool to understand the evolution of motor control has its limitations. We here review the potential limitations and opportunities of the use of EMG in studying the evolution of motor control in vertebrates and provide original previously unpublished data to illustrate this. The relative timing of activation of a set of muscles can be used to evaluate CNS coordination of the components in a musculoskeletal system. Studies of relative timing reveal task-dependent variability in the recruitment of different populations of muscle fibers (i.e., different fiber types) within a single muscle, and left–right asymmetries in activation that need to be taken into account in comparative studies. The magnitude of muscle recruitment is strongly influenced by the instantaneous demands imposed on the system, and is likely determined by local reflex-control systems. Consequently, using EMG to make meaningful inferences about evolutionary changes in musculoskeletal control requires comparisons across similar functional tasks. Moreover, our data show that inferences about the evolution of motor control are limited in their explanatory power without proper insights into the kinematics and dynamics of a system.
From the symposium "Electromyography: Interpretation and Limitations in Functional Analyses of Musculoskeletal Systems" presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 2–6, 2008, at San Antonio, Texas.