Trial- vs. cycle-level detrending in the analysis of cyclical biomechanical data.

Biomechanical time series may contain low-frequency trends due to factors like electromechanical drift, attentional drift and fatigue. Existing detrending procedures are predominantly conducted at the trial level, removing trends that exist over finite, adjacent time windows, but this fails to consider what we term 'cycle-level trends': trends that occur in cyclical movements like gait and that vary across the movement cycle, for example: positive and negative drifts in early and late gait phases, respectively. The purposes of this study were to describe cycle-level detrending and to investigate the frequencies with which cycle-level trends (i) exist, and (ii) statistically affect results. Anterioposterior ground reaction forces (GRF) from the 41-subject, 8-speed, open treadmill walking dataset of Fukuchi (2018) were analyzed. Of a total of 552 analyzed trials, significant cycle-level trends were found approximately three times more frequently (21.1%) than significant trial-level trends (7.4%). In statistical comparisons of adjacent walking speeds (i.e., speed 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 3, etc.) just 3.3% of trials exhibited cycle-level trends that changed the null hypothesis rejection decision. However 17.6% of trials exhibited cycle-level trends that qualitatively changed the stance phase regions identified as significant. Although these results are preliminary and derived from just one dataset, results suggest that cycle-level trends can contribute to analysis bias, and therefore that cycle-level trends should be considered and/or removed where possible. Software implementing the proposed cycle-level detrending is available at https://github.com/0todd0000/detrend1d.

Influence of Pedal Interface During Pedaling With the Upper Versus Lower Limbs: A Pilot Analysis of Torque Performance and Muscle Synergies.

Pedaling is a physical exercise practiced with either the upper or the lower limbs. Muscle coordination during these exercises has been previously studied using electromyography and synergy analysis, and three to four synergies have been identified for the lower and upper limbs. The question of synergy adaptabilities has not been investigated during pedaling with the upper limbs, and the impact of various modalities is yet not known. This study investigates the effect of pedal type (either clipped/gripped or flat) on the torque performance and the synergy in both upper and lower limbs. Torques applied by six participants while pedaling at 30% of their maximal power have been recorded for both upper and lower limbs. Electromyographic data of 11 muscles on the upper limbs and 11 muscles on the lower limbs have been recorded and synergies extracted and compared between pedal types. Results showed that the torques were not modified by the pedal types for the lower limbs while a deep adaptation is observable for the upper limbs. Participants indeed used the additional holding possibility by pulling the pedals on top of the pushing action. Synergies were accordingly modified for upper limbs while they remain stable for the lower limbs. In both limbs, the synergies showed a good reproducibility even if larger variabilities were observed for the upper limbs. This pilot study highlights the adaptability of muscle synergies according to the condition of movement execution, especially observed for the upper limbs, and can bring some new insights for the rehabilitation exercises.

An interdisciplinary framework to optimize the anticipation skills of high-level athletes using virtual reality.

The ambition of our contribution is to show how an interdisciplinary framework can pave the way for the deployment of innovative virtual reality training sessions to improve anticipation skills in top-level athletes. This improvement is so challenging that some authors say it is like "training for the impossible". This framework, currently being implemented as part of a project to prepare athletes for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, based on the ecological-dynamics approach to expertise, is innovative in its interdisciplinary nature, but also and above all because it overcomes the limitations of more traditional training methods in the field designed to optimize anticipation skills in top-level athletes. The ambition is to tackle successive challenges ranging from the design of virtual partners and opponents to the deployment of training programs in virtual reality, while ensuring the acceptability and acceptance of such innovative virtual reality training protocols and measuring associated workloads.

Increasing load carriage and running speed differentially affect the magnitude, variability and coordination patterns of muscle forces.

The study aims to investigate the effects of different loads and speed during running on inter- and intra-individual muscle force amplitudes, variabilities and coordination patterns. Nine healthy participants ran on an instrumentalized treadmill with an empty weight vest at two velocities (2.6 m/s and 3.3 m/s) or while carrying three different loads (4.5, 9.1, 13.6 kg) at 2.6 m/s while kinematics and kinetics were synchronously recorded. The major lower limb muscle forces were estimated using a musculoskeletal model. Muscle force amplitudes and variability, as well as coordination patterns were compared at the group and at the individual level using respectively statistical parametric mapping and covariance matrices combined with multidimensional scaling. Increasing the speed or the load during running increased most of the muscle force amplitudes (p < 0.01). During the propulsion phase, increasing the load increased muscle force variabilities around the ankle joint (modification of standard deviation up to 5% of body weight (BW), p < 0.05) while increasing the speed decreased variability for almost all the muscle forces (up to 10% of BW, p < 0.05). Each runner has a specific muscle force coordination pattern signature regardless of the different experimental conditions (p < 0.05). Yet, this individual pattern was slightly adapted in response to a change of speed or load (p < 0.05). Our results suggest that adding load increases the amplitude and variability of muscle force, but an increase in running speed decreases the variability. These findings may help improve the design of military or trail running training programs and injury rehabilitation by progressively increasing the mechanical load on anatomical structures.

Evolution of muscle coordination and mechanical output following four weeks of arm cranking submaximal training.

Muscle synergies is extensively studied to understand how the neuromusculoskeletal system deals with abundancy. The synergies represent covariant muscles that acts as building blocks for movement production. Nevertheless, little is known on how those synergies evolve following training, learning and expertise. This study reports the influence a 4-weeks submaximal training of arm-cranking on novice participants' muscle synergies. METHODS: 12 participants performed 8 sessions of submaximal training for 4 weeks. One session consisted in two 30-second-maximal power tests followed by six 2-minutes-bouts at 30% of maximal recorded power. Cranking torque and EMG of 11 muscles were recorded during the entire protocol. After EMG normalization, muscle synergies were extracted using NNMF. Similarity was computed using cross-correlation and cosine similarities and statistical evolution across training was tested using repeated measured ANOVA. RESULTS: While maximal power increased across training days nor torque management, EMG or muscle synergies were significantly affected by submaximal training. Nevertheless, results suggest slights modifications of muscle synergies across day despite to non-significant differences. DISCUSSION: Despite the strong complexity of the upper limbs anatomy, our results showed that training didn't induce significant changes in movement realization (mechanical and coordination level). A low-dimensional organization of muscle synergies is selected from the first day and kept through the following training days, despite slight but non-significant modifications.This study supports the hypothesis that motor control for movement production could be simplify using low-dimensional building blocks (muscle synergies). Such building blocks allow stability in movement execution and are slightly adjusted to fit movement requirements with training.

Subject specific muscle synergies and mechanical output during cycling with arms or legs.

Background: Upper (UL) and lower limb (LL) cycling is extensively used for several applications, especially for rehabilitation for which neuromuscular interactions between UL and LL have been shown. Nevertheless, the knowledge on the muscular coordination modality for UL is poorly investigated and it is still not known whether those mechanisms are similar or different to those of LL. The aim of this study was thus to put in evidence common coordination mechanism between UL and LL during cycling by investigating the mechanical output and the underlying muscle coordination using synergy analysis. Methods: Twenty-five revolutions were analyzed for six non-experts' participants during sub-maximal cycling with UL or LL. Crank torque and muscle activity of eleven muscles UL or LL were recorded. Muscle synergies were extracted using nonnegative matrix factorization (NNMF) and group- and subject-specific analysis were conducted. Results: Four synergies were extracted for both UL and LL. UL muscle coordination was organized around several mechanical functions (pushing, downing, and pulling) with a proportion of propulsive torque almost 80% of the total revolution while LL muscle coordination was organized around a main function (pushing) during the first half of the cycling revolution. LL muscle coordination was robust between participants while UL presented higher interindividual variability. Discussion: We showed that a same principle of muscle coordination exists for UL during cycling but with more complex mechanical implications. This study also brings further results suggesting each individual has unique muscle signature.

Inter-strides variability affects internal foot tissue loadings during running.

Running overuse injuries result from an imbalance between repetitive loadings on the anatomical structures and their ability to adapt to these loadings. Unfortunately, the measure of these in-vivo loadings is not easily accessible. An optimal amount of movement variability is thought to decrease the running overuse injury risk, but the influence of movement variability on local tissue loading is still not known. A 3D dynamic finite element foot model driven by extrinsic muscle forces was developed to estimate the stress undergone by the different internal foot structures during the stance phase. The boundary conditions of different trials with similar running speed were used as input. Variability in bone stress (10%) and cartilage pressure (16%) can be expected while keeping the overall running speed constant. Bone and cartilage stress were mainly influenced by the muscle force profiles rather than by ground reaction force. These findings suggest, first, that the analysis of a single trial only is not representative of the internal tissue loadings distribution in the foot and second, that muscle forces must be considered when estimating bone and cartilage loadings at the foot level. This model could be applied to an optimal clinical management of the overuse injury.

The stiff plate location into the shoe influences the running biomechanics.

The changes in running biomechanics induced by an increased longitudinal bending stiffness (stiff plates added into the shoes) have been well investigated, but little is known concerning the effects of the stiff plate location into the shoe on running biomechanics. Fourteen male recreational runners ran at two participant-specific running speeds (3.28 ± 0.28 m/s and 4.01 ± 0.27 m/s) with two shoe conditions where a stiff plate was added either in high (under the insole) or low location (between the midsole and outsole). Ground reaction forces, lower limb joint angles, net joint torques and work, as well as alignment between the resultant ground reaction force and the leg were analysed. Among the running speeds performed by the runners, the high location significantly decreased propulsive ground reaction forces, increased metatarsophalangeal joint dorsiflexion and ankle plantarflexion, induced an increased alignment between the resultant ground reaction force and the runner's leg, thus decreasing all the lower limb joint torques and the positive work at the knee joint compared to the low location. The results suggested that the high stiff plate location into the shoe should be considered for running performance perspectives, but care should be taken to not alter the perceived comfort and/or increase injury risks.

Online sonification improves cycling performance through kinematic and muscular reorganisations.

Based on a previous study that demonstrated the beneficial effects of sonification on cycling performance, this study investigated which kinematic and muscular activities were changed to pedal effectively. An online error-based sonification strategy was developed, such that, when negative torque was applied to the pedal, a squeak sound was produced in real-time in the corresponding headphone. Participants completed four 6-min cycling trials with resistance values associated with their first ventilatory threshold. Different auditory display conditions were used for each trial (Silent, Right, Left, Stereo), where sonification was only presented for 20 s at the start of minutes 1, 2, 3, and 4. Joint kinematics and right leg muscular activities of 10 muscles were simultaneously recorded. Our results showed participants were more effective at pedalling when presented sonification, which was consistent with previously reported findings. In comparison to the Silent condition, sonification significantly limited ankle and knee joint ranges of motion and reduced muscular activations. These findings suggest performance-based sonification significantly affected participants to reduce the complexity of the task by altering the coordination of the degrees of freedom. By making these significant changes to their patterns, participants improved their cycling performance despite lowering joint ranges of motion and muscular activations.

A multivariate statistical strategy to adjust musculoskeletal models.

In musculoskeletal modelling, adjusting model parameters is challenging. This paper proposes a multivariate statistical methodology to adjust muscle force-generating parameters optimally. Dynamic residuals are minimized as muscle force-generating parameters are varied (maximal isometric force, optimal fiber length, tendon slack length and pennation angle).First, a sensitivity and a Pareto analyses are carried out in order to sort out and screen the set of parameters having the greatest influence regarding the dynamic residuals. These parameters are then used to create a response surface following a Design of Experiments (DoE) approach. Finally, this surface is used to determine the optimum levels of the design variables (muscle force-generating parameters). The proposed methodology is illustrated by the adjustment of a three-dimensional musculoskeletal model of a sheep forelimb. After adjustment, the reserve actuator values of the elbow and wrist joints were reduced, on average, by 18%, and 16%, respectively. These results demonstrate that the use of multivariate statistical strategies is an effective way to adjust model parameters optimally while reducing dynamic inconsistencies. This study constitutes a step towards a more robust methodology in musculoskeletal modelling, focusing on muscular parameter tuning.

Is Motorized Treadmill Running Biomechanically Comparable to Overground Running? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-Over Studies.

BACKGROUND: Treadmills are often used in research, clinical practice, and training. Biomechanical investigations comparing treadmill and overground running report inconsistent findings. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at comparing biomechanical outcomes between motorized treadmill and overground running. METHODS: Four databases were searched until June 2019. Crossover design studies comparing lower limb biomechanics during non-inclined, non-cushioned, quasi-constant-velocity motorized treadmill running with overground running in healthy humans (18-65 years) and written in English were included. Meta-analyses and meta-regressions were performed where possible. RESULTS: 33 studies (n = 494 participants) were included. Most outcomes did not differ between running conditions. However, during treadmill running, sagittal foot-ground angle at footstrike (mean difference (MD) - 9.8° [95% confidence interval: - 13.1 to - 6.6]; low GRADE evidence), knee flexion range of motion from footstrike to peak during stance (MD 6.3° [4.5 to 8.2]; low), vertical displacement center of mass/pelvis (MD - 1.5 cm [- 2.7 to - 0.8]; low), and peak propulsive force (MD - 0.04 body weights [- 0.06 to - 0.02]; very low) were lower, while contact time (MD 5.0 ms [0.5 to 9.5]; low), knee flexion at footstrike (MD - 2.3° [- 3.6 to - 1.1]; low), and ankle sagittal plane internal joint moment (MD - 0.4 Nm/kg [- 0.7 to - 0.2]; low) were longer/higher, when pooled across overground surfaces. Conflicting findings were reported for amplitude of muscle activity. CONCLUSIONS: Spatiotemporal, kinematic, kinetic, muscle activity, and muscle-tendon outcome measures are largely comparable between motorized treadmill and overground running. Considerations should, however, particularly be given to sagittal plane kinematic differences at footstrike when extrapolating treadmill running biomechanics to overground running. Protocol registration CRD42018083906 (PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews).

Does an increase in energy return and/or longitudinal bending stiffness shoe features reduce the energetic cost of running?

PURPOSE: This study focused on the effects of shoe energy return and shoe longitudinal bending stiffness on the energetic cost and biomechanics of running. METHODS: The energetic cost of running and biomechanical variables altering running economy (ground contact times, stride frequency, vertical and leg stiffness, ground reaction force impulses, alignment between the resultant ground reaction force and the leg) were measured for nineteen male recreational runners. Participants ran overground under their ventilatory anaerobic threshold (10.8 ± 1.1 km h-1 on average) using four shoe prototypes with features combining low or high magnitudes of energy return and longitudinal bending stiffness. RESULTS: Neither the energy return, nor the longitudinal bending stiffness, or the interaction of these shoe features altered the energetic cost of running. High energy return shoes induced significant increased ground contact time from 274.5 ± 18.3 to 277.1 ± 18.7 ms, and significant decreased stride frequency from 1.34 ± 0.05 to 1.33 ± 0.05 Hz. High bending stiffness shoes induced significant increased ground contact time from 273.8 ± 18.2 to 277.9 ± 18.7 ms, significant increased vertical stiffness from 23.2 ± 3.4 to 23.8 ± 3.0 kN m-1, and significant decreased net vertical impulse from 245.4 ± 17.2 to 241.7 ± 17.5 BW ms. CONCLUSIONS: Increased energy return and longitudinal bending stiffness induced subtle changes in the running biomechanics, but did not induce any decrease in the energetic cost of running.

A scale-based approach to interdisciplinary research and expertise in sports.

After more than 20 years since the introduction of ecological and dynamical approaches in sports research, their promising opportunity for interdisciplinary research has not been fulfilled yet. The complexity of the research process and the theoretical and empirical difficulties associated with an integrated ecological-dynamical approach have been the major factors hindering the generalisation of interdisciplinary projects in sports sciences. To facilitate this generalisation, we integrate the major concepts from the ecological and dynamical approaches to study behaviour as a multi-scale process. Our integration gravitates around the distinction between functional (ecological) and execution (organic) scales, and their reciprocal intra- and inter-scale constraints. We propose an (epistemological) scale-based definition of constraints that accounts for the concept of synergies as emergent coordinative structures. To illustrate how we can operationalise the notion of multi-scale synergies we use an interdisciplinary model of locomotor pointing. To conclude, we show the value of this approach for interdisciplinary research in sport sciences, as we discuss two examples of task-specific dimensionality reduction techniques in the context of an ongoing project that aims to unveil the determinants of expertise in basketball free throw shooting. These techniques provide relevant empirical evidence to help bootstrap the challenging modelling efforts required in sport sciences.

The effects of player grip on the dynamic behaviour of a tennis racket.

The aim of this article is to characterise the extent to which the dynamic behaviour of a tennis racket is dependent on its mechanical characteristics and the modulation of the player's grip force. This problem is addressed through steps involving both experiment and modelling. The first step was a free boundary condition modal analysis on five commercial rackets. Operational modal analyses were carried out under "slight", "medium" and "strong" grip force conditions. Modal frequencies and damping factors were then obtained using a high-resolution method. Results indicated that the dynamic behaviour of a racket is not only determined by its mechanical characteristics, but is also highly dependent on the player's grip force. Depending on the grip force intensity, the first two bending modes and the first torsional mode frequencies respectively decreased and increased while damping factors increased. The second step considered the design of a phenomenological hand-gripped racket model. This model is fruitful in that it easily predicts the potential variations in a racket's dynamic behaviour according to the player's grip force. These results provide a new perspective on the player/racket interaction optimisation by revealing how grip force can drive racket dynamic behaviour, and hence underlining the necessity of taking the player into account in the racket design process.

Active tuning of stroke-induced vibrations by tennis players.

This paper investigates how tennis players control stroke-induced vibration. Its aim is to characterise how a tennis player deals with entering vibration waves or how he/she has the ability to finely adjust them. A specific experimental procedure was designed, based on simultaneously collecting sets of kinematic, vibration and electromyographic data during forehand strokes using various commercial rackets and stroke intensities. Using 14 expert players, a wide range of excitations at spectral and temporal levels were investigated. Energetic and spectral descriptors of stroke-induced vibration occurring at the racket handle and at the player's wrist and elbow were computed. Results indicated that vibrational characteristics are strongly governed by grip force and to a lower extent by the racket properties. Grip force management drives the amount of energy, as well as its distribution, into the forearm. Furthermore, hand-grip can be assimilated to an adaptive filter which can significantly modify the spectral parameters propagating into the player's upper limb. A significant outcome is that these spectral characteristics are as much dependent on the player as on the racket. This contribution opens up new perspectives in equipment manufacture by underlining the need to account for player/racket interaction in the design process.

Functional coordination of muscles underlying changes in behavioural dynamics.

The dynamical systems approach addresses Bernstein's degrees of freedom problem by assuming that the neuro-musculo-skeletal system transiently assembles and dismantles its components into functional units (or synergies) to meet task demands. Strikingly, little is known from a dynamical point of view about the functioning of the muscular sub-system in this process. To investigate the interaction between the dynamical organisation at muscular and behavioural levels, we searched for specific signatures of a phase transition in muscular coordination when a transition is displayed at the behavioural level. Our results provide evidence that, during Fitts' task when behaviour switches to a different dynamical regime, muscular activation displays typical signatures of a phase transition; a reorganisation in muscular coordination patterns accompanied by a peak in the variability of muscle activation. This suggests that consistent changes occur in coordination processes across the different levels of description (i.e., behaviour and muscles). Specifically, in Fitts' task, target size acts as a control parameter that induces a destabilisation and a reorganisation of coordination patterns at different levels of the neuro-musculo-skeletal system.

The Influence of the 'Trier Social Stress Test' on Free Throw Performance in Basketball: An Interdisciplinary Study.

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between stress and sport performance in a controlled setting. The experimental protocol used to induce stress in a basketball free throw was the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and its control condition (Placebo-TSST). Participants (n = 19), novice basketball players but trained sportspersons, were exposed to two counterbalanced conditions in a crossover design. They were equipped with sensors to measure movement execution, while salivary cortisol and psychological state were also measured. The task consisted of two sequences of 40 free throws, one before either the TSST or Placebo-TSST and one after. Physiological and psychological measures evidenced that the TSST induced significant stress responses, whereas the Placebo-TSST did not. Shooting performance remained stable after the TSST but decreased after the Placebo-TSST. We found no effect of the TSST or Placebo-TSST on movement execution. A multivariate model of free throw performance demonstrated that timing, smoothness and explosiveness of the movements are more relevant to account for beginner's behavior than stress-related physiological and psychological states. We conclude that the TSST is a suitable protocol to induce stress responses in sport context, even though the effects on beginners' free throw performance and execution are small and complex.

The Effect of Aging on Muscular Dynamics Underlying Movement Patterns Changes.

Introduction: Aging leads to alterations not only within the complex subsystems of the neuro-musculo-skeletal system, but also in the coupling between them. Here, we studied how aging affects functional reorganizations that occur both within and between the behavioral and muscular levels, which must be coordinated to produce goal-directed movements. Using unimanual reciprocal Fitts' task, we examined the behavioral and muscular dynamics of older adults (74.4 ± 3.7 years) and compared them to those found for younger adults (23.2 ± 2.0 years). Methods: To achieve this objective, we manipulated the target size to trigger a phase transition in the behavioral regime and searched for concomitant signatures of a phase transition in the muscular coordination. Here, muscular coordination was derived by using the method of muscular synergy extraction. With this technique, we obtained functional muscular patterns through non-negative matrix factorization of the muscular signals followed by clustering the resulting synergies. Results: Older adults showed a phase transition in behavioral regime, although, in contrast to young participants, their kinematic profiles did not show a discontinuity. In parallel, muscular coordination displayed two typical signatures of a phase transition, that is, increased variability of coordination patterns and a reorganization of muscular synergies. Both signatures confirmed the existence of muscular reorganization in older adults, which is coupled with change in dynamical regime at behavioral level. However, relative to young adults, transition occurred at lower index of difficulty (ID) in older participants and the reorganization of muscular patterns lasted longer (over multiple IDs). Discussion: This implies that consistent changes occur in coordination processes across behavior and muscle. Furthermore, the repertoire of muscular patterns was reduced and somewhat modified for older adults, relative to young participants. This suggests that aging is not only related to changes in individual muscles (e.g., caused by dynapenia) but also in their coordination.

Quantifying foot deformation using finite helical angle.

Foot intrinsic motion originates from the combination of numerous joint motions giving this segment a high adaptive ability. Existing foot kinematic models are mostly focused on analyzing small scale foot bone to bone motions which require both complex experimental methodology and complex interpretative work to assess the global foot functionality. This study proposes a method to assess the total foot deformation by calculating a helical angle from the relative motions of the rearfoot and the forefoot. This method required a limited number of retro-reflective markers placed on the foot and was tested for five different movements (walking, forefoot impact running, heel impact running, 90° cutting, and 180° U-turn) and 12 participants. Overtime intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to quantify the helical angle pattern repeatability for each movement. Our results indicated that the method was suitable to identify the different motions as different amplitudes of helical angle were observed according to the flexibility required in each movement. Moreover, the results showed that the repeatability could be used to identify the mastering of each motion as this repeatability was high for well mastered movements. Together with existing methods, this new protocol could be applied to fully assess foot function in sport or clinical contexts.