Motor learning of cue-dependent pull-force changes during an isometric precision grip task

•Finger force changes induced by a cue were studied in an unloading task.•Cued force changes (CFC) are evoked by highly efficiently performed movements.•CFC requires adequate and precisely time-controlled muscles activity.•CFC is learned more rapidly than in protective reflex systems.•Most significant effect of CFC was found in the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle.

The “raspberry task” represents a precision grip task that requires continuous adjustment of grip and pull forces. During this task subjects grip a specialized grip rod and have to increase the pull force linearly while the rod is locked. The aim of this study was to determine whether an associated, initially neutral cue is able to evoke pull-force changes in the raspberry task. A standard delay paradigm was used to study cued pull-force changes during an ongoing movement resulting in unloading. Pull force and EMG activity of hand and arm muscles were recorded from 13 healthy, young subjects. The cue was associated with a complex change in motor behavior.In this task, cued force changes take place more rapidly than in protective reflex systems (in median after the second presentation of the cueing stimulus). A cued force change was detectable in two-thirds of paired trials. Although the force change is produced by a decrease of the EMG activity in several grip- and pull-force-producing muscles, the most significant effect in the majority of the subjects was an increase of the activity of the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle which antagonises corresponding pull-force-producing muscles. Cued force changes require adequately and precisely controlled activation of the muscle groups involved in the movement.