Brain Activation During Maximum Concentric and Eccentric Knee Extension Muscle Contractions

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Author Info

Moein Koohestani Ali Sharifnezhad Ali Abbasi Amir-Homayoun Javadi Alli Gokeler

Corresponding Author

Ali Sharifnezhad
Department of Sports Biomechanics and Technology, Sport Science Research Institute, Tehran, Iran

A B S T R A C T

Purpose: In spite of mounting evidence indicating that concentric and eccentric knee extensor muscle contractions might have special nervous system control strategies, the differentiation of brain frequencies between concentric and eccentric movements and how the motor cortex programs this contraction has been less studied. In this study, the brain and muscle activation differences during maximum concentric and eccentric contractions were compared. Methods: Nine healthy volunteers performed 20 maximum eccentric and 20 maximum concentric knee extensor contractions. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals from sensorimotor-related cortical areas were recorded simultaneous with the electromyography (EMG) of the knee extensor muscles. In the spectral analysis the performance related power values were calculated for Theta (4-7 Hz) and Alpha (7-12 Hz). Results: The time-domain results revealed, longer time and greater cortical activity is required for the preparation of an eccentric contraction. For the eccentric task, the cortical activity was greater, but the EMG was lower in comparison to the concentric task values. Statistical analysis showed significant higher and lower Theta and Alpha power in both types of contractions compared to the resting state, respectively. Conclusion: These findings suggest that increased Theta power is associated with task complexity and focused attention and decreased Alpha power values with increased information processing in the somatosensory cortex.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Sat 11, Jul 2020
Accepted: Wed 12, Aug 2020
Published: Thu 20, Aug 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Ali Sharifnezhad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JBN.2020.01.05