Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Comparison of the power spectral changes of the voluntary surface electromyogram and M wave during intermittent maximal voluntary contractions

  • Original Article
  • Published:
European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

To compare the power spectral changes of the voluntary surface electromyogram (sEMG) and of the compound action potential (M wave) in the vastus medialis and vastus lateralis muscles during fatiguing contractions.

Methods

Interference sEMG and force were recorded during 48 intermittent 3-s isometric maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) from 13 young, healthy subjects. M waves and twitches were evoked using supramaximal femoral nerve stimulation between the successive MVCs. Mean frequency (F mean), and median frequency were calculated from the sEMG and M waves. Muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV) was computed by cross-correlation.

Results

The power spectral shift to lower frequencies was significantly greater for the voluntary sEMG than for the M waves (P < 0.05). Over the fatiguing protocol, the overall average decrease in MFCV (~25 %) was comparable to that of sEMG F mean (~22 %), but significantly greater than that of M-wave F mean (~9 %) (P < 0.001). The mean decline in MFCV was highly correlated with the mean decreases in both sEMG and M-wave F mean.

Conclusions

The present findings indicated that, as fatigue progressed, central mechanisms could enhance the relative weight of the low-frequency components of the voluntary sEMG power spectrum, and/or the end-of-fiber (non-propagating) components could reduce the sensitivity of the M-wave spectrum to changes in conduction velocity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

F mean :

Mean frequency

F median :

Median frequency

MFCV:

Muscle fiber conduction velocity

MVC:

Maximal voluntary contraction

sEMG:

Surface electromyography

VL:

Vastus lateralis

VM:

Vastus medialis

References

  • Bigland-Ritchie B, Woods JJ (1984) Changes in muscle contractile properties and neural control during human muscular fatigue. Muscle Nerve 7(9):691–699

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bigland-Ritchie B, Donovan EF, Roussos CS (1981) Conduction velocity and EMG power spectrum changes in fatigue of sustained maximal efforts. J Appl Physiol 51:1300–1305

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bigland-Ritchie B, Johansson R, Lipold OCJ, Woods JJ (1982) Changes of single motor unit firing rates during sustained maximal voluntary contractions. J Physiol London 328:27–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Broman H, Bilotto G, De Luca CJ (1985) Myoelectric signal conduction velocity and spectral parameters: influence of force and time. J Appl Physiol 58(5):1428–1437

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buller AJ, Lewis DM, Ridge RMAP (1965) Some electrical characteristics of fast twitch and slow twitch skeletal muscle fibres in the cat. J Physiol 180:29–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimitrova NA, Dimitrov GV (2003) Interpretation of EMG changes with fatigue: facts, pitfalls, and fallacies. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 13(1):13–36

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Falces JR, Trigueros AM, Useros LG, Carreño IR, Irujo JN (2005) A mathematical analysis of SFAP convolutional models. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 52(5):769–783

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farina D, Merletti R, Enoka RM (2004) The extraction of neural strategies from the surface EMG. J Appl Physiol 96:1486–1495

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farina D, Cescon C, Negro F, Enoka RM (2008) Amplitude cancellation of motor-unit action potentials in the surface electromyogram can be estimated with spike-triggered averaging. J Neurophysiol 100(1):431–440

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gerdle B, Eriksson NE, Brundin L (1990) The behaviour of the mean power frequency of the surface electromyogram in biceps brachii with increasing force and during fatigue. With special regard to the electrode distance. Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol 30:483–489

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grimby L, Hannerz J (1977) Firing rate and recruitment order of toe extensor motor units in different modes of voluntary contraction. J Physiol (London) 264:865–879

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hammarberg C, Kellerth JO (1975) Studies of some twitch and fatigue properties of different motor unit types in the ankle muscles of the adult cat. Acta Physiol Scand 95:231–242

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson J, Persson A (1974) Effects of repetitive stimulation on membrane potentials and twitch in human and rat intercostal muscle fibres. Acta Physiol Scand 92:238–248

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inbar GF, Allin J, Kranz H (1987) Surface EMG spectral changes with muscle length. Med Biol Eng Comput 25(6):683–689

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones NB, Lago PJA (1982) Spectral analysis and the interference EMG. IEEE Proc 129:673–678

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan KG, Farina D, Maluf KS, Merletti R, Enoka RM (2005) Influence of amplitude cancellation on the simulated electromyogram. J Appl Physiol 98:120–131

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keenan KG, Farina D, Merletti R, Enoka RM (2006) Amplitude cancellation reduces the size of motor unit potentials averaged from the surface EMG. J Appl Physiol 100:928–1937

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kranz H, Williams AM, Cassell J, Caddy DJ, Silberstein RB (1983) Factors determining the frequency content of the electromyogram. J Appl Physiol 55:392–399

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kupa EJ, Roy SH, Kandarian SC, De Luca CJ (1995) Effects of muscle fibre type and size on EMG median frequency and conduction velocity. J Appl Physiol 79:23–32

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lago P, Jones NB (1977) Effect of motor unit firing time statistics on EMG spectra. Med Biol Eng Comput 15:648–655

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lateva ZC, McGill KC (1998) The physiological origin of the slow afterwave in muscle action potentials. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 108:462–469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindström L, Magnusson R (1977) Interpretation of myoelectric power spectra: a model and its applications. Proc IEEE 65:653–662

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindström L, Magnusson R, Petersen I (1970) Muscular fatigue and action potential conduction velocity changes studied with frequency analysis of EMG signals. Electromyography 10(4):341–355

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Masuda T, Miyano H, Sadoyama T (1982) The measurement of muscle fiber conduction velocity using a gradient threshold zero-crossing method. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 29(10):673–678

  • Mills KR (1982) Power spectral analysis of electromyogram and compound muscle action potential during muscle fatigue and recovery. J Physiol 326:401–409

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moritani T, Muro M, Kijima A, Gaffney FA, Parsons D (1985) Electromechanical changes during electrically induced and maximal voluntary contractions: surface and intramuscular EMG responses during sustained maximal voluntary contraction. Exp Neurol 88(3):484–499

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Naeije M, Zorn H (1983) Estimation of the action potential conduction velocity in human skeletal muscle using the surface EMG cross-correlation technique. Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol 23(1–2):73–80

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pan ZS, Zhang Y, Parker PA (1989) Motor unit power spectrum and firing rate. Med Biol Eng Comput 27(1):14–18

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peters EJ, Fuglevand AJ (1999) Cessation of human motor unit discharge during sustained maximal voluntary contraction. Neurosci Lett 274:66–70

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petrofsky JS, Lind AR (1980) Frequency analysis of the surface electromyogram during sustained isometric contractions. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 43(2):173–182

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pincivero DM, Campy RM, Salfetnikov Y, Bright A, Coelho AJ (2001) Influence of contraction intensity, muscle, and gender on median frequency of the quadriceps femoris. J Appl Physiol 90(3):804–810

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Post M, Steens A, Renken R, Maurits NM, Zijdewind I (2009) Voluntary activation and cortical activity during a sustained maximal contraction: an fMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp 30(3):1014–1027

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Falces J, Place N (2014) Effects of muscle fibre shortening on the characteristics of surface motor unit potentials. Med Biol Eng Comput 52:95–107

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Falces J, Maffiuletti NA, Place N (2013) Twitch and M-wave potentiation induced by intermittent maximal voluntary quadriceps contractions: differences between direct quadriceps and femoral nerve stimulation. Muscle Nerve 48(6):920–929

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schulte E, Farina D, Merletti R, Rau G, Disselhorst-Klug C (2004) Influence of muscle fibre shortening on estimates of conduction velocity and spectral frequencies from surface electromyographic signals. Med Biol Eng Comput 42(4):477–486

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shochina M, Gonen B, Wolf E, Mahler Y, Magora A (1986) A study of the application of the Fourier series in the analysis of the electrophysiological pattern of development of muscle fatigue. Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol 26(7):513–520

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Solomonow M, Baten C, Smit J, Baratta R, Hermens H, D’Ambrosia R, Shoji H (1990) Electromyogram power spectra frequencies associated with motor unit recruitment strategies. J Appl Physiol 68:1177–1185

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stulen FB, DeLuca CJ (1981) Frequency parameters of the myoelectric signal as a measure of muscle conduction velocity. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 28(7):515–523

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JL, Gandevia SC (2008) A comparison of central aspects of fatigue in submaximal and maximal voluntary contractions. J Appl Physiol 104(2):542–550

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tucker KJ, Türker KS (2005) A new method to estimate signal cancellation in the human maximal M-wave. J Neurosci Methods 149(1):31–41

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yaar I, Niles L (1992) Muscle fiber conduction velocity and mean power spectrum frequency in neuromuscular disorders and in fatigue. Muscle Nerve 15(7):780–787

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zwarts MJ, Van Weerden TW, Haenen HT (1987) Relationship between average muscle fibre conduction velocity and EMG power spectra during isometric contraction, recovery and applied ischemia. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 56(2):212–216

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronical Engineering, Public University of Navarra, Campus de Arrosadía s/n, 31006, Pamplona, Spain

    Javier Rodriguez-Falces

  2. Department of Health Sciences, Public University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain

    Mikel Izquierdo & Miriam González-Izal

  3. ISSUL Institute of Sport Sciences, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Nicolas Place

  4. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Nicolas Place

Authors
  1. Javier Rodriguez-Falces
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mikel Izquierdo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Miriam González-Izal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nicolas Place
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Javier Rodriguez-Falces.

Additional information

Communicated by Toshio Moritani.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rodriguez-Falces, J., Izquierdo, M., González-Izal, M. et al. Comparison of the power spectral changes of the voluntary surface electromyogram and M wave during intermittent maximal voluntary contractions. Eur J Appl Physiol 114, 1943–1954 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-2924-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-2924-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation