Forearm muscle co-contraction in response to dynamic wrist perturbations

The purpose of this work was to evaluate changes in forearm muscle co-contraction caused by sudden wrist perturbations during a dynamic wrist tracking task using a haptic wrist robot. Surface electromyography was recorded from eight muscles of the upper-limb. Co-contraction ratios for all muscle pairs illustrated significantly greater extensor activity across all experimental conditions which may leave muscles susceptible to early-onset fatigue and chronic overuse injuries in the workplace.