Effects of hand configuration on muscle force coordination, co-contraction and concomitant intermuscular coupling during maximal isometric flexion of the fingers

Purpose The mechanisms governing the control of musculoskeletal redundancy remain to be fully understood. The hand is highly redundant, and shows different functional role of extensors according to its configuration for a same functional task of finger flexion. Through intermuscular coherence analysis combined with hand musculoskeletal modelling during maximal isometric hand contractions, our aim was to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying the control of muscle force coordination and agonist–antagonist co-contraction.