Adjustments of fast goal-directed movements in response to an unexpected inertial load

Subjects made fast goal-directed elbow flexion movements against an inertial load. Target distance was 8 or 16 cm, randomly chosen. To exert a force in the direction of the movement subjects had to activate flexors of both shoulder and elbow, but shoulder flexors did not change appreciably in length during the movement. In 20% of the trials the inertial load was increased or decreased without knowledge of the subjects. Until 90-110 ms after the onset of the agonist muscle activity (about 65-85 ms after the start of movement) EMG activity was very similar in all conditions tested. The changes that occurred in the EMG from that moment on were effectively a later cessation of the agonist activity and a later start of the antagonist activity if the load was increased unexpectedly. If the load was reduced unexpectedly, the agonist activity ceased earlier and the antagonist activity began earlier. The latency at which EMGs started to change was the same for muscles around shoulder and elbow, for agonists and antagonists and for both distances. All adjustments had the same latency (37 ms) relative to the point where the angular velocity of the elbow in the unexpectedly loaded movements differed by 0.6 rad/s from the expected value. We discuss why simple reflex- or servo-mechanisms cannot account for the measured EMG changes. We conclude that appropriate adjustments of motor programmes for fast goal-directed arm movements start within 40 ms of the detection of misjudgment of load.