Relation between arousal neuromodulators and muscle coactivation

Determine how brainstem arousal circuits (locus coeruleus and raphe nuclei) relate to muscle coactivation level during behavior and whether their neuromodulatory activity is modulated by task demands or by properties of the body and environment.

Background

Arousal circuits releasing neuromodulators have widespread impact on neural excitability and can modulate feedback gains across the nervous system.

While behavioral and physiological measures suggest a link between arousal and coactivation, the authors explicitly call for future work to determine how these circuits relate to coactivation levels and task/environmental modulation.

References

Future work is required to understand how these circuits relate to the level of muscle coactivation during behavior and whether they are modulated according to the demands of the task or features body and environment.

— Muscle coactivation primes the nervous system for fast and task-dependent feedback control (2410.16101 - Maurus et al., 21 Oct 2024) in Neural mechanisms that may prime the nervous system for fast and task-dependent responses to sensory feedback (Arousal circuits subsection)