Abstract
The loss of force production during sustained activity presents the CNS a unique control problem. Different tasks stress the neuromuscular system at different sites and times, and involve different cellular mechanisms. The functional organization of muscles and their motor units has evolved to avoid fatigue processes that impair motor performance. The purpose of this brief review is to examine the fatigue properties of type-identified motor units and to speculate what these properties reveal about the organization and control of muscle.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bergström M & Hultman E (1988). Energy cost and fatigue during intermittent electrical stimulation of human skeletal muscle. Journal of Applied Physiology 65, 1500–1505.
Bevan L, Laouris Y, Reinking RM & Stuart DG (1992). The effect of the stimulation pattern on the fatigue of single motor units in adult cats. Journal of Physiology (London) 449, 85–108.
Bigland-Ritchie B, Cafarelli E & Vøllestad NK (1986). Fatigue of submaximal static contractions. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica Supplementum 556, 137–148.
Bigland-Ritchie B, Johansson R, Lippold OCJ, Smith S & Woods JJ (1983a). Changes in motoneurone firing rates during sustained maximal voluntary contractions. Journal of Physiology (London) 340, 335–346.
Bigland-Ritchie B, Johansson R, Lippold OCJ & Woods JJ (1983b). Contractile speed and EMG changes during fatigue of sustained maximal voluntary contractions. Journal of Neurophysiology 50, 313–324.
Bigland-Ritchie B & Woods JJ (1984). Changes in muscle contractile properties and neural control during human muscular fatigue. Muscle & Nerve 7, 691–699.
Binder-Macleod SA & Clamann HP (1989). Force output of cat motor units stimulated with trains of linearly varying frequency. Journal of Neurophysiology 61, 208–217.
Botterman BR & Cope TC (1988a). Motor-unit stimulation patterns during fatiguing contractions of constant tension. Journal of Neurophysiology 60, 1198–1214.
Botterman BR & Cope TC (1988b). Maximum tension predicts relative endurance of fast-twitch motor units in the cat. Journal of Neurophysiology 60, 1215–1226.
Botterman BR, Graf LB & Tansey KE (1992). Fatigability of cat soleus motor units activated at varying force levels. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 18, 1556.
Botterman BR, Iwamoto GA & Gonyea WJ (1985). Classification of motor units in flexor carpi radialis muscle of the cat. Journal of Neurophysiology 54, 676–690.
Botterman BR, Iwamoto GA & Gonyea WJ (1986). Gradation of isometric tension by different activation rates on motor units of cat flexor carpi radialis muscle. Journal of Neurophysiology 56, 494–506.
Burke RE (1981). Motor units: anatomy, physiology, and functional organization. In: Brookhart JM, Mountcastle VB (eds.), Brooks VB (vol. ed.), Handbook of Physiology, sec. 1, vol. II, pt. 1, The Nervous System: Motor Control, pp. 345-422. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.
Burke RE, Levine DN, Tsairis P & Zajac FE (1973). Physiological types and histochemical profiles of motor units of cat gastrocnemius. Journal of Physiology (London) 234, 723–748.
Burke RE & Tsairis P (1974) The correlation of physiological properties with histochemical characteristics in single muscle units. Annals New York Academy of Sciences 228, 145–158.
Clamann HP & Robinson AJ (1985). A comparison of electromyographic and mechanical fatigue properties in motor units of the cat hindlimb. Brain Research 327, 203–219.
Cope TC & Clark BD (1991). Motor unit recruitment in the decerebrate cat: several unit properties are equally good predictors of order. Journal of Neurophysiology 66, 1127–1138.
Cope TC, Webb CB, Yee AK & Botterman BR (1991). Nonuniform fatigue characteristics of slow-twitch motor units activated at a fixed percentage of their maximum tetanic tension. Journal of Neurophysiology 66, 1483–1492.
Dawson MJ, Gadian DG & Wilkie DR (1978). Muscular fatigue investigated by phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance. Nature (London) 274, 861–866.
Dubose L, Schelhorn TB & Clamann HP (1987). Changes in contractile speed of cat motor units during activity. Muscle & Nerve 10, 744–752.
Duchateau J & Hainaut K (1985). Electrical and mechanical failures during sustained and intermittent contractions in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology 58, 942–947.
Edwards RHT, Hill DK, Jones DA & Merton PA (1977). Fatigue of long duration in human skeletal muscle after exercise. Journal of Physiology (London) 272, 769–778.
Enoka RM, Robinson GA & Kossev AR (1989). Task and fatigue effects on low-threshold motor units in human hand muscle. Journal of Neurophysiology 62, 1344–1359.
Enoka RM & Stuart DG (1992). Neurobiology of muscle fatigue. Journal of Applied Physiology 72, 1631–1648.
Enoka RM, Trayanova N, Laouris Y, Bevan L, Reinking RM & Stuart DG (1992). Fatigue-related changes in motor unit action potentials of adult cats. Muscle & Nerve 14, 138–150.
Fitch S & McComas A (1985). Influence of human muscle length on fatigue. Journal of Physiology (London) 362, 205–213.
Fitts RH (1994). Cellular mechanisms of muscle fatigue. Physiological Reviews 74, 49–94.
Gandevia SC, Macefield G, Burke D & McKenzie DK (1990). Voluntary activation of human motor axons in the absence of muscle afferent feedback. The control of the deafferented hand. Brain 113, 1563–1581.
Gardiner PF & Olha AE (1987). Contractile and electromyographic characteristics of rat plantaris motor unit types during fatigue in situ. Journal of Physiology (London) 385, 13–34.
Garland SJ, Enoka RM, Serrano LP & Robinson GA (1994). Behavior of motor units in human biceps brachii during a submaximal fatiguing contraction. Journal of Applied Physiology 76, 2411–2419.
Garnett RAF, O’Donovan MJ, Stephens JA, Taylor A (1979). Motor unit organization of human medial gastrocnemius. Journal of Physiology (London) 287, 33–43.
Gordon DA, Enoka RM, Karst GM & Stuart DG (1990a). Force development and relaxation in single motor units of adult cats during a standard fatigue test. Journal of Physiology (London) 421, 583–594.
Gordon DA, Enoka RM & Stuart DG (1990b). Motor-unit force potentiation in adult cats during a standard fatigue test. Journal of Physiology (London) 421, 569–582.
Henneman E & Olson CB (1965). Relations between structure and function in the design of skeletal muscles. Journal of Neurophysiology 28, 581–598.
Henneman E, Somjen G & Carpenter DO (1965a). Functional significance of cell size in spinal motoneurons. Journal of Neurophysiology 28, 560–580.
Henneman E, Somjen G & Carpenter DO (1965b). Excitability and inhibitability of motoneurons of different sizes. Journal of Neurophysiology 28, 599–620.
Jami L, Murthy KSK, Petit J & Zytnicki D (1983). After-effects of repetitive stimulation at low frequency on fast-contracting motor units of cat muscle. Journal of Physiology (London) 340, 129–143.
Kernell D, Ducati A & Sjöholm H (1975). Properties of motor units in the first deep lumbrical muscle of the cat’s foot. Brain Research 98, 37–55.
Kernell D, Eerbeek O & Verhey BA (1983). Relation between isometric force and stimulation rate in cat’s hindlimb motor units of different twitch contraction time. Experimental Brain Research 50, 220–237.
Kernell D & Monster AW (1982). Motoneurone properties and motor fatigue. An intracellular study of gastrocnemius motoneurones of the cat. Experimental Brain Research 46, 197–204.
Krarup C (1981). Enhancement and diminution of mechanical tension evoked by staircase and by tetanus in rat muscle. Journal of Physiology (London) 311, 355–372.
Kugelberg E & Lindegren B (1979). Transmission and contraction fatigue of rat motor units in relation to succinate dehydrogenase activity of motor unit fibres. Journal of Physiology (London) 288, 285–300.
Loiselle DS & Walmsley B (1982). Cost of force development as a function of stimulus rate in rat soleus muscle. American Journal of Physiology 243, C242–C246.
Maton B & Garnet D (1989). The fatigability of two agonistic muscles in human isometric voluntary submaximal contraction: and EMG study. II. Motor unit firing rate and recruitment. European Journal of Applied Physiology & Occupational Physiology 58, 369–374.
Metzger JM & Fitts RH (1987). Fatigue from high-and low-frequency muscle stimulation: contractile and biochemical alterations. Journal of Applied Physiology 62, 2075–2082.
Nordstrom MA & Miles TS (1990). Fatigue of single motor units in human masseter. Journal of Applied Physiology 68, 26–34.
Powers RK & Binder MD (1991). Effects of low-frequency stimulation of the tension-frequency relations of fast-twitch motor units in the cat. Journal of Neurophysiology 66, 905–918.
Sandercock TG, Faulkner JA, Albers JW & Abbrecht PH (1985). Single motor unit and fiber action potentials during fatigue. Journal Applied Physiology 58, 1073–1079.
Stephens JA & Usherwood TP (1977). The mechanical properties of human motor units with special reference to their fatiguability and recruitment threshold. Brain Research 125, 91–97.
Thomas CK, Bigland-Ritchie B & Johansson RS (1991b). Force-frequency relationships of human thenar motor units. Journal of Neurophysiology 65, 1509–1516.
Thomas CK, Johansson RS & Bigland-Ritchie B (1991a). Attempts to physiologically classify human thenar motor units. Journal of Neurophysiology 65, 1501–1508.
Westerblad H, Lee JA, Lännergren J & Allen DG (1991). Cellular mechanisms of fatigue in skeletal muscle. American Journal of Physiology 261, C195–C209.
Westling G, Johansson RS, Thomas CK & Bigland-Ritchie B (1990). Measurement of contractile and electrical properties of single human thenar motor units in response to intraneural motor-axon stimulation. Journal of Neurophysiology 64, 1331–1346.
Woods JJ, Furbush F and Bigland-Ritchie B (1987). Evidence for a fatigue-induced reflex inhibition of motoneuron firing rates. Journal of Neurophysiology 58, 125–137.
Yee AK, Tansey KE & Botterman BR (1990). Relative endurance and recruitment order among pairs of fast-twitch motor units in the cat medial gastrocnemius muscle. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 16, 888.
Zajac FE & Faden JS (1985). Relationship among recruitment order, axonal conduction velocity, and muscle-unit properties of type-identified motor units in the cat plantaris muscle. Journal of Neurophysiology 53, 1303–1322.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Botterman, B.R. (1995). Task-Dependent Nature of Fatigue in Single Motor Units. In: Gandevia, S.C., Enoka, R.M., McComas, A.J., Stuart, D.G., Thomas, C.K., Pierce, P.A. (eds) Fatigue. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 384. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1016-5_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1016-5_28
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1018-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1016-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive