Torque Regulation Is Influenced by the Nature of the Isometric Contraction

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a continuous visual feedback and the isometric contraction nature on the complexity and variability of force. Thirteen healthy and young male adults performed three MVCs followed by three submaximal isometric force tasks at a target force of 40% of their MVC for 30 s, as follows: (i) push isometric task with visual feedback (P-visual); (ii) hold isometric task with visual feedback (H-visual); (iii) hold isometric task without visual feedback (Hnon-visual). Force complexity was evaluated through sample entropy (SampEn) of the force output. Force variability was analyzed through the coefficient of variation (CV). Results showed that differences were task-related, with P-visual showing higher complexity (i.e., higher SampEn) and decreased variability (i.e., lower CV) when compared with the remaining tasks. Additionally, no significant differences were found between the two hold isometric force tasks (i.e., no influence of visual feedback). Our results are promising as we showed these two isometric tasks to induce different motor control strategies. Furthermore, we demonstrated that visual feedback's influence is also dependent on the type of isometric task. These findings should motivate researchers and physiologists to shift training paradigms and incorporate different force control evaluation tasks.

Automated summary

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a continuous visual feedback and the isometric contraction nature on the complexity and variability of force. Results showed that the push isometric task with visual feedback (P-visual) had higher complexity and decreased variability compared to the other tasks. There were no significant differences between the hold isometric task without visual feedback (Hnon-visual) and the hold isometric task with visual feedback (H-visual). These findings suggested that different motor control strategies were induced by the two isometric tasks, and the influence of visual feedback depended on the type of isometric task.