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Time-dependent adaptations to posture and movement characteristics during the development of repetitive reaching induced fatigue

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Abstract

Repetitive movements are common to many daily activities but often lead to the development of fatigue. We have previously shown that fatigue leads to changes in tridimensional spatial characteristics of the whole body. However, temporal aspects of these posture and movement adaptations have yet to be investigated. Healthy subjects (N = 14) performed a continuous reaching task by pointing between two targets placed at shoulder height, at 100 and 30% arm’s length, anterior to the subject’s midline until fatigue (assessed using the Borg CR-10 scale). Whole body kinematics and upper Trapezius EMG were recorded and analyzed at 1-min intervals to document the progression of fatigue on outcome variables. For all upper limb and postural variables analyzed, changes began to occur approximately midway to fatigue and were followed by an increase in Trapezius activity from baseline. Reach-to-reach variability of joint average positions and range of motion (ROM) increased in multiple directions for shoulder and elbow parameters. Reach-to-reach variability of the center-of-mass ROM also increased in several directions. Changes were also observed in within-movement inter-segmental timing. The peak velocities of elbow and endpoint occurred closer together in time during fatigue while the shoulder peak velocity occurrence showed a greater reach-to-reach variability. Our results suggest that the effects of fatigue on repetitive movement kinematics can be observed across three temporal dimensions of the task: (1) within individual movements, (2) from one movement to the next, and (3) as fatigue develops. Each observed change is discussed as a potential contributor to task-specific control strategies to prolong task performance.

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Acknowledgments

Jason Fuller is supported by a scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). This work has been supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, McGill University, 475 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H2W 1S4, Canada

    Jason R. Fuller & Julie N. Côté

  2. Feil & Oberfeld/CRIR Research Centre, Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, Laval, QC, H7V 1R2, Canada

    Jason R. Fuller, Joyce Fung & Julie N. Côté

  3. School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, 3654 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y5, Canada

    Joyce Fung

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  1. Jason R. Fuller
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  2. Joyce Fung
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Correspondence to Jason R. Fuller.

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Fuller, J.R., Fung, J. & Côté, J.N. Time-dependent adaptations to posture and movement characteristics during the development of repetitive reaching induced fatigue. Exp Brain Res 211, 133–143 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2661-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2661-8

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