Do Slanted Mice Help?

A study in the journal of Clinical Biomechanics did a study using surface EMG on muscles responsible for wrist deviation, flexion, extension, and pronation. A last surface EMG was placed on the trap muscles. The goal was to find out if slanted mice reduced muscle activation and awkward postures related to the use of the device.

The angles studied ranged from 0 degrees to 30 degrees.

The study concluded that the activity of the four examined muscles was affected by the slanted angles of the designed ergonomic mice in repetitive and long duration computer mouse tasks. Among the five tested mice, the 25° or 30° slanted mice caused lower muscle activity and more neutral working postures for the forearm extensors, traps, and pronator muscles. For the extensor muscles, a larger slanted angle increased the height of the tested mouse, and this might have lead to larger wrist extension and a higher risk of carpal tunnel syndrome down the line. There are two independent ways to decrease this wrist extension: the first is to choose an ergonomic mouse with a lower right-side height for a specified slanted angle, the second method is to choose a mouse with an elongated rear inclined part on which the wrist can rest and be lifted.