Abstract

Forty Parkinsonian patients and 26 normal subjects were instructed not to resist movements of a handle which they maintained in a specified position (1) during tonic activation of muscles against the force produced by a torque motor and (2) while no force was produced by the motor. Electromyographic responses to handle displacements were recorded in biceps muscle (pronating or supinating displacements) or in wrist extensor and flexor muscles (displacements which extended or flexed the wrist). Displacements involving changes of muscle length elicited (1) excitation and inhibition occurring at monosynaptic latency in muscles which were stretched and shortened, respectively; (2) a "silent period" following the initial excitation in the stretched muscle and excitation following the initial inhibition in the shortened muscle (shortening reaction); and (3) (in Parkinsonian patients) sustained oscillations at about 4 to 5 Hz (at rest) or about 6 to 8 Hz (during maintained posture). It was also observed that the initial muscle responses in both the stretched and shortened muscle could be reciprocal and biphasic, with the two peaks of excitation in the agonist occurring during reduced activity of antagonist muscles, and vice versa.