Muscle synergy in several locomotor modes in chimpanzees and Japanese macaques, and its implications for the evolutionary origin of bipedalism through shared muscle synergies.

ABSTRACT: Recent evidence indicates that human ancestors utilized a combination of quadrupedal walking, climbing, and bipedal walking. Therefore, the origin of bipedalism may be linked to underlying mechanisms supporting diverse locomotor modes. This study aimed to elucidate foundations of varied locomotor modes from the perspective of motor control by identifying muscle synergies and demonstrating similarities in synergy compositions across different locomotor modes in chimpanzees and Japanese macaques. Four muscle synergies were extracted for bipedal and quadrupedal walking in both the chimpanzees and macaques, as well as for vertical climbing in the chimpanzees. Bipedal walking synergies were generally analogous to those observed in quadrupedal walking and vertical climbing. Specifically, the bip

SUBMITTER: Goto R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11682134 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature