Modulation of homosynaptic depression during voluntary contraction and muscle fatigue with different test reflex size

The present study examined functional connectivity (FC) between functional MRI (fMRI) signals of the primary motor cortex (M1) and each of the three subcortical neural structures, cerebellum (CB), basal ganglia (BG), and thalamus (TL), during muscle fatigue using the quantile regression technique. Understanding activation relation between the subcortical structures and the M1 during prolonged motor performance should help delineate how central motor control network modulates acute perturbations at peripheral sensorimotor system such as muscle fatigue. Ten healthy subjects participated in the study and completed a 20-minute intermittent handgrip motor task at 50% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) level. Quantile regression analyses were carried out to compare the FC between the contralateral (left) M1 and CB, BG, and TL in the minimal (beginning 100 s) versus significant (ending 100 s) fatigue stages. Widespread, statistically significant increases in FC were found in bilateral BG, CB, and TL with the left M1 during significant versus minimal fatigue stages. Our results imply that these subcortical nuclei are critical components in the motor control network and actively involved in modulating voluntary muscle fatigue, possibly, by working together with the M1 to strengthen the descending central command to prolong the motor performance.

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Intramuscular and surface electromyogram changes during muscle fatigue

Journal of Applied Physiology ◽

10.1152/jappl.1986.60.4.1179 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 60 (4) ◽

pp. 1179-1185 ◽

Cited By ~ 258

Author(s):

T. Moritani ◽

M. Muro ◽

A. Nagata

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Biceps Brachii ◽

Surface Emg ◽

Firing Frequency ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Mean Power ◽

Mean Power Frequency ◽

Surface Electromyogram ◽

Spike Amplitude ◽

Frequency Power

Twelve male subjects were tested to determine the effects of motor unit (MU) recruitment and firing frequency on the surface electromyogram (EMG) frequency power spectra during sustained maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and 50% MVC of the biceps brachii muscle. Both the intramuscular MU spikes and surface EMG were recorded simultaneously and analyzed by means of a computer-aided intramuscular spike amplitude-frequency histogram and frequency power spectral analysis, respectively. Results indicated that both mean power frequency (MPF) and amplitude (rmsEMG) of the surface EMG fell significantly (P less than 0.001) together with a progressive reduction in MU spike amplitude and firing frequency during sustained MVC. During 50% MVC there was a significant decline in MPF (P less than 0.001), but this decline was accompanied by a significant increase in rmsEMG (P less than 0.001) and a progressive MU recruitment as evidenced by an increased number of MUs with relatively large spike amplitude. Our data suggest that the surface EMG amplitude could better represent the underlying MU activity during muscle fatigue and the frequency powers spectral shift may or may not reflect changes in MU recruitment and rate-coding patterns.

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The Effect of Heating and Cooling on Time Course of Voluntary and Electrically Induced Muscle Force Variation

Medicina ◽

10.3390/medicina47010006 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

◽

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Time Course ◽

Muscle Force ◽

Peak Torque ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Knee Extensors ◽

Lower Body ◽

Heating And Cooling ◽

Force Variation ◽

Voluntary Contractions

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of heating and cooling on time course of voluntary and electrically induced muscle force variation. Material and Methods. Ten volunteers performed 50 maximal voluntary and electrically induced contractions of the knee extensors at an angle of 120 degrees under the control conditions and after passive lower body heating and cooling in the control, heating, and cooling experiments. Peak torque, torque variation, and half-relaxation time were assessed during the exercise. Results. Passive lower body heating increased muscle and core temperatures, while cooling lowered muscle temperature, but did not affect core temperature. We observed significantly lower muscle fatigue during voluntary contraction compared with electrically induced contractions. Body heating (opposite to cooling) increased involuntarily induced muscle force, but caused greater electrically induced muscle fatigue. In the middle of the exercise, the coefficient of correlation for electrically induced muscle torque decreased significantly as compared with the beginning of the exercise, while during maximal voluntary contractions, this relation for torque remained significant until the end of the exercise. Conclusion. It was shown that time course of voluntary contraction was more stable than in electrically induced contractions.

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The frequency of alternate muscle activity is associated with the attenuation in muscle fatigue

Journal of Applied Physiology ◽

10.1152/japplphysiol.01309.2005 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 101 (3) ◽

pp. 715-720 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Motoki Kouzaki ◽

Minoru Shinohara

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Muscle Activity ◽

Healthy Subjects ◽

Vastus Lateralis ◽

Rectus Femoris ◽

Knee Extension ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Sustained Contraction ◽

Low Level ◽

Before And After

Alternate muscle activity between synergist muscles has been demonstrated during low-level sustained contractions [≤5% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force]. To determine the functional significance of the alternate muscle activity, the association between the frequency of alternate muscle activity during a low-level sustained knee extension and the reduction in knee extension MVC force was studied. Forty-one healthy subjects performed a sustained knee extension at 2.5% MVC force for 1 h. Before and after the sustained knee extension, MVC force was measured. The surface electromyogram was recorded from the rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL), and vastus medialis (VM) muscles. The frequency of alternate muscle activity for RF-VL, RF-VM, and VL-VM pairs was determined during the sustained contraction. The frequency of alternate muscle activity ranged from 4 to 11 times/h for RF-VL (7.0 ± 2.0 times/h) and RF-VM (7.0 ± 1.9 times/h) pairs, but it was only 0 to 2 times/h for the VL-VM pair (0.5 ± 0.7 times/h). MVC force after the sustained contraction decreased by 14% ( P < 0.01) from 573.6 ± 145.2 N to 483.3 ± 130.5 N. The amount of reduction in MVC force was negatively correlated with the frequency of alternate muscle activity for the RF-VL and RF-VM pairs ( P < 0.001 and r = 0.65 for both) but not for the VL-VM pair. The results demonstrate that subjects with more frequent alternate muscle activity experience less muscle fatigue. We conclude that the alternate muscle activity between synergist muscles attenuates muscle fatigue.

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Assessing the Therapeutic Effect of 630 nm Light-Emitting Diodes Irradiation on the Recovery of Exercise-Induced Hand Muscle Fatigue with Surface Electromyogram

International Journal of Photoenergy ◽

10.1155/2012/652040 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dandan Yang ◽

Xiaoying Wu ◽

Wensheng Hou ◽

Xiaolin Zheng ◽

Jun Zheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Light Emitting Diode ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Control Group ◽

Flexor Digitorum Superficialis ◽

Light Emitting ◽

Hand Muscle ◽

Exercise Induced ◽

Flexor Digitorum ◽

And Control

This paper aims to investigate the effect of light emitting diode therapy (LEDT) on exercise-induced hand muscle fatigue by measuring the surface electromyography (sEMG) of flexor digitorum superficialis. Ten healthy volunteers were randomly placed in the equal sized LEDT group and control group. All subjects performed a sustained fatiguing isometric contraction with the combination of four fingertips except thumb at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) until exhaustion. The active LEDT or an identical passive rest therapy was then applied to flexor digitorum superficialis. Each subject was required to perform a re-fatigue task immediately after therapy which was the same as the pre-fatigue task. Average rectified value (ARV) and fractal dimension (FD) of sEMG were calculated. ARV and FD were significantly different between active LEDT and passive rest groups at 20%–50%, 70%–80%, and 100% of normalized contraction time (P<0.05). Compared to passive rest, active LEDT induced significantly smaller increase in ARV values and decrease in FD values, which shows that LEDT is effective on the recovery of muscle fatigue. Our preliminary results also suggest that ARV and FD are potential replacements of biochemical markers to assess the effects of LEDT on muscle fatigue.

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Neural and metabolic mechanisms of excessive muscle fatigue in maintenance hemodialysis patients

AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpregu.00187.2005 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 289 (3) ◽

pp. R805-R813 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Kirsten L. Johansen ◽

Julie Doyle ◽

Giorgos K. Sakkas ◽

Jane A. Kent-Braun

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Muscle Activation ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Voluntary Activation ◽

Maintenance Hemodialysis ◽

Dialysis Patients ◽

Metabolic Disturbances ◽

Oxidative Potential ◽

Central Activation ◽

Peripheral Activation

Dialysis patients have severe exercise limitations related to metabolic disturbances, but muscle fatigue has not been well studied in this population. We investigated the magnitude and mechanisms of fatigue of the ankle dorsiflexor muscles in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Thirty-three dialysis patients and twelve healthy control subjects performed incremental isometric dorsiflexion exercise, beginning at 10% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and increasing by 10% every 2 min. Muscle fatigue (fall of MVC), completeness of voluntary activation, and metabolic responses to exercise were measured. Before exercise, dialysis subjects exhibited reduced strength and impaired peripheral activation (lower compound muscle activation potential amplitude) but no metabolic perturbation. During exercise, dialysis subjects demonstrated threefold greater fatigue than controls with evidence of central activation failure but no change in peripheral activation. All metabolic parameters were significantly more perturbed at end exercise in dialysis subjects than in controls, including lower phosphocreatine (PCr) and pH, and higher Pi, Pi/PCr, and H2PO4−. Oxidative potential was markedly lower in patients than in controls [62.5 (SD 27.2) vs. 134.6 (SD 31.7), P < 0.0001]. Muscle fatigue was negatively correlated with oxidative potential among dialysis subjects ( r = −0.52, P = 0.04) but not controls. Changes in central activation ratio were also correlated with muscle fatigue in the dialysis subjects ( r = 0.59, P = 0.001) but not the controls. This study provides new information regarding the excessive muscular fatigue of dialysis patients and demonstrates that the mechanisms of this fatigue include both intramuscular energy metabolism and central activation failure.

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Does Muscle Fatigue Alter EEG Bands of Brain Hemispheres?

Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering ◽

10.31661/jbpe.v0i0.621 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Sh Taghizadeh ◽

S Pirouzi ◽

A Zamani ◽

A Motealleh ◽

Z Bagheri

Keyword(s):

Muscle Contraction ◽

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Beta Band ◽

Healthy Human ◽

Gamma Rhythm ◽

Band Activity ◽

Three Phases

Background: Muscle fatigue has been known to influence brain activity, but very little is known about how cortical centers respond to muscle fatigue.Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of muscle contraction and fatigue induced by two different percent of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) on Electroencephalography (EEG) signals.Methods: EEG signals were recorded from twenty-one healthy human subjects during three phases (rest, pre fatigue and post fatigue) contraction of Adductor pollicis muscle (APM) at 30% and 70% MVC. The mean powers of EEG bands (alpha, beta and gamma) were computed offline in the frequency domain.Results: None of the three phases with each percent of MVC revealed significant differences for all bands (p>0.05). Comparison of two hemispheres showed right hemisphere gamma band activity was enhanced during pre-fatigue state at 30% MVC (p= 0.042) and post-fatigue state at 70% MVC (p= 0.028). Right hemisphere beta band activity also increased prominently at 70% MVC in post-fatigue condition (p = 0.030).Conclusion: These results suggest muscle contraction and fatigue at 30% and 70% MVC have no significant effect on EEG activity, but the trends of beta and gamma band activities are almost similar in each percent of 30% and 70% MVC. Right brain hemisphere shows more activity than left hemisphere in beta and gamma rhythm after fatigue state at 70% MVC.

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Skeletal Muscle Fatigue State Evaluation with Ultrasound Image Entropy

Ultrasonic Imaging ◽

10.1177/0161734620952683 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 42 (6) ◽

pp. 235-244

Author(s):

Pan Li ◽

Xuebing Yang ◽

Guanjun Yin ◽

Jianzhong Guo

Keyword(s):

Skeletal Muscle ◽

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Biceps Brachii ◽

Ultrasound Image ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Ultrasound Images ◽

Semg Signal ◽

Skeletal Muscle Fatigue ◽

Image Entropy ◽

State Evaluation

Muscle fatigue often occurs over a long period of exercise, and it can increase the risk of muscle injury. Evaluating the state of muscle fatigue can avoid unnecessary overtraining and injury of the muscle. Ultrasound imaging can non-invasively visualize muscle tissue in real-time. Image entropy is commonly used to characterize the texture of an image. In this study, we evaluated changes in the ultrasound image entropy (USIE) during the fatigue process. Twelve volunteers performed static sustained contractions of biceps brachii at four different intensities (20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% of maximal voluntary contraction torque). The ultrasound images and surface electromyography (sEMG) signals were acquired during exercise to fatigue. We found that (1) the root-mean-square of the sEMG signal increased, the USIE decreased significantly with time during the sustained contractions; (2) the maximum endurance time (MET) and the decline percentage of USIE were significantly different ( p < .05) among the four contraction intensities; (3) the decline slope of USIE of the same volunteer was basically the same at different contraction intensities. The USIE could be a new method for the evaluation of skeletal muscle fatigue state.

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Comparison of neuromuscular adjustments associated with sustained isometric contractions of four different muscle groups

Journal of Applied Physiology ◽

10.1152/japplphysiol.01539.2012 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 114 (10) ◽

pp. 1426-1434 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Daria Neyroud ◽

Jennifer Rüttimann ◽

Anne F. Mannion ◽

Guillaume Y. Millet ◽

Nicola A. Maffiuletti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Upper Limb ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Voluntary Activation ◽

Knee Extensors ◽

Elbow Flexors ◽

Plantar Flexors ◽

Task Failure ◽

Before And After ◽

Muscle Groups

The extent and characteristics of muscle fatigue of different muscle groups when subjected to a similar fatiguing task may differ. Thirteen healthy young men performed sustained contractions at 50% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force until task failure, with four different muscle groups, over two sessions. Per session, one upper limb and one lower limb muscle group were tested (knee extensors and thumb adductor, or plantar and elbow flexors). Changes in voluntary activation level and contractile properties were derived from doublet responses evoked during and after MVCs before and after exercise. Time to task failure differed ( P < 0.05) between muscle groups (220 ± 64 s for plantar flexors, 114 ± 27 s for thumb adductor, 77 ± 25 s for knee extensors, and 72 ± 14 s for elbow flexors). MVC force loss immediately after voluntary task failure was similar (−30 ± 11% for plantar flexors, −37 ± 13% for thumb adductor, −34 ± 15% for knee extensors, and −40 ± 12% for elbow flexors, P > 0.05). Voluntary activation was decreased for plantar flexors only (from 95 ± 5% to 82 ± 9%, P < 0.05). Potentiated evoked doublet amplitude was more depressed for upper limb muscles (−59.3 ± 14.7% for elbow flexors and −60.1 ± 24.1% for thumb adductor, P < 0.05) than for knee extensors (−28 ± 15%, P < 0.05); no reduction was found in plantar flexors (−7 ± 12%, P > 0.05). In conclusion, despite different times to task failure when sustaining an isometric contraction at 50% MVC force for as long as possible, diverse muscle groups present similar loss of MVC force after task failure. Thus the extent of muscle fatigue is not affected by time to task failure, whereas this latter determines the etiology of fatigue.

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Comparing neck extensor muscle function in asymptomatic Canadian adults and adults with tension-type headache: a cross-sectional study

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020984 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. e020984 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrée-Anne Marchand ◽

Mariève Houle ◽

Marie-Pier Girard ◽

Marie-Ève Hébert ◽

Martin Descarreaux

Keyword(s):

Muscle Fatigue ◽

Maximum Voluntary Contraction ◽

Tension Type Headache ◽

Voluntary Contraction ◽

Extensor Muscle ◽

Control Group ◽

Physical Parameters ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Neck Extension ◽

Type Headache

AimTo further the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying tension-type headache (TTH) by comparing the endurance and strength of neck extensor muscles under acute muscle fatigue in participants with TTH and asymptomatic participants.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis of neck extensor muscle performance. Asymptomatic participants and participants with TTH were recruited via social media platforms and from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières community and employees. A total of 44 participants with TTH and 40 asymptomatic participants took part in an isometric neck extensor endurance task performed at 60% of their maximum voluntary contraction. Inclusion criteria for the headache group were to be older than 18 years old and to fulfil the International Headache Society classification’s criteria for either frequent episodic or chronic TTH. Clinical (self-efficacy, anxiety, neck disability and kinesiophobia) and physical parameters (neck extensors maximum voluntary contraction, endurance time, muscle fatigue) as well as characteristics of headache episodes (intensity, frequency and associated disability) were collected for all participants. Surface electromyography was used to document upper trapezius, splenius capitis and sternocleidomastoids muscle activity and muscle fatigue.ResultsBoth groups displayed similar neck extensor muscle endurance capacity with a mean difference of 6.2 s (p>0.05) in favour of the control group (control=68.1±32.3; TTH=61.9±20.1). Similarly, participants in the headache group showed comparable neck extensor muscle strength (95.9±30.4 N) to the control group (111.3±38.7 N). Among participants with TTH, those scoring as severely incapacitated by headaches were the ones with higher neck-related disability (F[1,44]=10.77; p=0.002), the more frequent headache episodes (F[1,44]=6.70; p=0.01) and higher maximum headache intensity (F[1,44]=10.81; p=0.002).ConclusionA fatigue task consisting of isometric neck extension cannot efficiently differentiate participants with TTH from asymptomatic participants.

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