A little elastic for a better performance: Kinesiotaping of the motor effector modulates neural mechanisms for rhythmic movements

A rhythmic motor performance is brought about by an integration of timing information with movements. We have recently demonstrated that the precision of an isochronous performance, defined as performance of repeated movements having a uniform duration, was insensible to auditory stimuli of various characteristics (Bravi et al., 2014, Exp. Brain Res.). Such finding has led us to further investigate where do the determining factors of precision reside. For this purpose we used manipulation of cutaneous afferents by kinesiotaping (KT), an approach that was previously shown to improve some isokinetic performances. Subjects, tested without KT and with KT, have participated in sessions in which sets of repeated isochronous wrist's flexion-extensions (IWFEs) were performed under various auditory conditions and during their recall. Kinematics was recorded and temporal parameters were extracted and analyzed. Various degrees of improvement in the isochronous performances were evident for the KT recordings especially in terms of temporal precision. Our results indicate that, in the precision of repetitive rhythmic movements, the manipulation of cutaneous afferents plays a significant role. Whether this increase in precision is achieved by augmentation of the efficiency in central or local neural mechanisms is to be determined, but what remains certain is that when it comes to precision, a little elastic makes the difference.