Name: An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles (Video) | JoVE Journal
Uploaded: 2020-08-25T13:15:00.000+00:00
Duration: 9 min 27 s
Description: Learn the emerging target paradigm to elicit fast visuomotor responses in human upper limb muscles using EMG. This method enables study of neural mechanisms across the lifespan and in neurological disorders.

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This work is supported by a Discovery Grant to BDC from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; RGPIN 311680) and an Operating Grant to BDC from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; MOP-93796). RAK was supported by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and ALC was supported by an NSERC CREATE grant. The experimental apparatus described in this manuscript was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Additional support came from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (BrainsCAN).

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</ol>

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Humans have a remarkable capacity, when needed, to generate rapid, visually guided actions at latencies that approach minimal afferent and efferent conduction delays. We have previously described stimulus-locked responses (SLRs) on the upper limb as a new measure for rapid visuomotor responses6,9,10. While beneficial in providing a trial-by-trial benchmark for the first aspect of upper limb muscle recruitment influenced by the v...

When we notice a message on our cellphone, we are prompted to perform a visually guided reach to pick up our phone and read the message. Visual features such as the shape and size of the phone are transformed into motor commands allowing us to successfully reach the goal. Such visuomotor transformations may be studied in laboratory conditions, which permit a high degree of control. However, there are scenarios where response time is important, e.g., catching the phone if it were to fall. Laboratory studies of fast visuomotor behaviors often rely on displaced target paradigms where on-going movements are modified in mid-flight following some change in target position (e.g., see ref.1,2). While such online corrections can occur in &#60;150 ms3, it is difficult to ascertain the exact timing of fast visuomotor output using kinematics alone due to the low-pass filtering characteristics of the arm, and because fast visuomotor output supersedes a movement already in mid-flight. Such complications lead to uncertainty about the substrates underlying fast visuomotor responses (see ref.4 for review). Some studies suggest that subcortical structures such as the superior colliculus, rather than fronto-parietal cortical areas, may initiate online corrections5.
This uncertainty regarding the underlying neural substrates may be due, at least in part, to the lack of a reliable biomarker for the output of the fast visuomotor system. Recently, we have described a measure of fast visuomotor responses that may be generated from static postures and recorded via electromyography (EMG). Stimulus-locked responses (SLRs) are time locked bursts of EMG activity that precede voluntary movement6,7, evolving consistently ~100 ms after stimulus onset. As the name implies, SLRs are evoked by stimulus onset, persisting even if an eventual movement is withheld8 or moves in the opposite direction9. Furthermore, SLRs evoked by target displacement in a dynamic paradigm are associated with shorter latency online corrections10. Thus, SLRs provide an objective measure to systematically study the output of a fast visuomotor system involved in short latency RTs, as they may be generated from a static posture and parsed from other EMG signals unrelated to the initial phase of the fast visuomotor response.
The goal of the current study is to present a visually-guided reaching paradigm that robustly elicits SLRs. Previous studies investigating the SLR have reported less than 100% detection rates across participants, even when using more invasive intramuscular recordings6,8,9. Low detection rates and a reliance on invasive recordings limit the usefulness of SLR measures in future investigations into the fast visuomotor system in disease or across the lifespan. While some subjects may simply not express SLRs, the stimuli and behavioral paradigms used previously may not have been ideal to evoke the SLR. Past reports of SLRs have typically used paradigms wherein participants generate visually-guided reaches towards static, suddenly appearing targets6,9. However, a fast visuomotor system is the most likely needed in scenarios where one must rapidly interact with a falling or flying object, leading one&#160;to wonder if moving rather than static stimuli may better evoke SLRs. Therefore, we have adapted a moving target paradigm used to study eye movements11, and combined it with a pro/anti visually guided reaching task used to examine the SLR9. When compared to results from paradigms used previously6,8,9, it was found that SLRs in the emerging target paradigm evolved sooner, attained higher magnitudes, and were more prevalent across our participant sample. Overall, the emerging target paradigm promotes the expression of fast visuomotor responses to such a degree that objective EMG measures can be made reliably with surface recordings, potentiating study within clinical populations and across the lifespan. Further, the emerging target paradigm can be modified in many different ways, promoting more thorough investigations into the sensory, cognitive, and motor factors that promote or modify fast visuomotor responses.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Bagnoli-8 Desktop Surface EMG System</td><td>Delsys Inc.</td><td></td><td>Another reaching apparatus may be used</td></tr><tr><td>Kinarm End-Point Robot</td><td>Kinarm, Kingston, Ontario, Canada</td><td></td><td>Another reaching apparatus may be used</td></tr><tr><td>MATLAB (version R2016a) Stateflow and Simulink applications</td><td>The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, Massachusetts, United States</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>PROPixx projector</td><td>VPIXX Saint-Bruno, QC, Canada</td><td></td><td>This is a custom built addon for the Kinarm. Other displays may be used. Resolution: 1920 x 1080. Standard viewing monitors may also be used.</td></tr></tbody></table>

an emerging target paradigm to evoke fast visuomotor responses on human upper limb muscles

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles

To reach towards a seen object, visual information has to be transformed into motor commands. Visual information such as the object&#8217;s color, shape, and size are processed and integrated within numerous brain areas, then ultimately relayed to the motor periphery. In some instances, a reaction is needed as fast as possible. These fast visuomotor transformations, and their underlying neurological substrates, are poorly understood in humans as they have lacked a reliable biomarker. Stimulus-locked responses (SLRs) are short latency (&#60;100 ms) bursts of electromyographic (EMG) activity representing the first wave of muscle recruitment influenced by visual stimulus presentation. SLRs provide a quantifiable output of rapid visuomotor transformations, but SLRs have not been consistently observed in all subjects in past studies. Here we describe a new, behavioral paradigm featuring the sudden emergence of a moving target below an obstacle that consistently evokes robust SLRs. Human participants generated visually guided reaches toward or away from the emerging target using a robotic manipulandum while surface electrodes recorded EMG activity from the pectoralis major muscle. In comparison to previous studies that investigated SLRs using static stimuli, the SLRs evoked with this emerging target paradigm were larger, evolved earlier, and were present in all participants. Reach reaction times (RTs) were also expedited in the emerging target paradigm. This paradigm affords numerous opportunities for modification that could permit systematic study of the impact of various sensory, cognitive, and motor manipulations on fast visuomotor responses. Overall, our results demonstrate that an emerging target paradigm is capable of consistently and robustly evoking activity within a fast visuomotor system.

Stimulus locked responses (SLRs) are brief bursts of muscle activity time locked to the stimulus onset that evolve well before the larger volley of muscle recruitment associated with movement onset. The time-locked nature of the SLR produced a ‘banding’ of muscle activity visible at ~100 ms when viewing all trials sorted for reaction time (RT) (Figure 1a, highlighted by grey boxes). As shown in Figure 1a, SLRs was dependent on target location, with SLRs on the r...

Presented here is a behavioral paradigm that elicits robust fast visuomotor responses on human upper limb muscles during visually guided reaches.

To reach towards a seen object, visual information has to be transformed into motor commands. Visual information such as the object&#8217;s color, shape, ...

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Learn the emerging target paradigm to elicit fast visuomotor responses in human upper limb muscles using EMG. This method enables study of neural mechanisms across the lifespan and in neurological disorders.

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles

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