Relationships among electromyogram, displacement and velocity of the center of pressure, and muscle stiffness of the medial gastrocnemius muscle during quiet standing

Medial gastrocnemius muscle stiffness was estimated using a system identification technique. The medial gastrocnemius muscle was electrically stimulated using surface Ag-AgCl electrodes and the center of pressure fluctuation in the forward-backward direction was measured with a force plate. Electrically induced fluctuation of the center of pressure was classified according to the displacement and velocity of the center of pressure. The classified steps of displacement and velocity were 0.2 cm and 0.2 cm/s, respectively. The ranges of the classes were ±0.15 cm and ±0.15 cm/s. The classified fluctuations were synchronously averaged and the averaged fluctuation was regarded as an output signal of the transfer function from the electrical stimulation to the fluctuation. The transfer function was identified as an estimate of muscle stiffness using a singular value de-composition method. The average muscle stiffness of eight young male participants ranged from 56.7 to 75.9 N/m. Muscle stiffness was high when the displacement of the center of pressure was positive and the velocity was negative. These characteristics resembled the preceding 0.3 s of the electromyogram. This preceding high muscle activity probably contributed to muscle stiffness. Muscle stiffness was well approximated with a multiple linear regression plane, in which the explanatory variables were the displacement and velocity of the center of pressure.