Is There a Difference in Muscle EMG Activity and Morphology Between Black and White People?
Ufuk Şekir
, Güfat Arslan, Osman İlhan
Uludağ University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Sports Medicine, Bursa, Turkey
Keywords: Ethnic differences, muscle fascicle length, muscle pennation angle, peroneal reaction time, tibial reaction time
Abstract
Objective: To measure differences in reaction time and morphology of the peroneus longus and tibialis anterior muscles between black and white people.
Materials and Methods: Twenty-five healthy recreational male athletes (12 black, 13 white) were enrolled in this study. Electromyographic activity parameters (reaction time, reaction duration and reaction magnitude) of the muscles were measured using an ankle supination tilting platform. There were four different supination conditions: (a) ankle neutral, 15° inversion (0015), (b) ankle neutral, 30° inversion (0030), (c) ankle 20° plantarflexion, 15° inversion (2015), and (d) ankle 20° plantarflexion, 30° inversion (2030). Morphology (pennation angle, fascicle length and muscle thickness) was evaluated by means of ultrasonographic measurements.
Results: Only the reaction duration of the tibialis anterior muscle in the 0015 (p=0.030) and 0030 (p=0.039) positions and the reaction magnitude of the peroneus longus (p=0.046) and tibialis anterior (p=0.003) muscles in the 0015 condition were significantly higher in white subjects. These parameters were not significantly different in 2015 and 2030 supination conditions (p˃0.05). Neither peroneal nor tibial muscle latency were significantly different between ethnicities in any of the four supination conditions (p˃0.05). Similarly, besides the different fascicle length values of the tibialis anterior muscle in the contracted condition (p=0.011), all other muscle morphological features (muscle thickness and pennation angle) of peroneus longus and tibialis anterior muscle were similar among the ethnicities (p˃0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study did not reveal differences in electromyographic activity or muscle morphology of the peroneus longus and tibialis anterior muscles between black and white people.
Cite this article as: Sekir U, Arslan G, Ilhan O. Is there a difference in muscle EMG activity and morphology between black and white people? Turk J Sports Med. 2017;52:116-26.
This research was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK); Project Number: 115S811.
