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Postactivation potentiation of short tetanic contractions is differently influenced by stimulation frequency in young and elderly adults

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of postactivation potentiation (PAP) on the torque and rate of torque development for contractions evoked by short trains of stimuli at different frequencies, in young and elderly adults. Individual mechanical contributions to each electrical stimulus within trains were also analysed. Single pulse, and two- (PT2) and three-pulse trains (PT3) delivered at 20, 50, 80 and 100 Hz were evoked before and during a 10 min period after a 6-s conditioning MVC. The results show that PAP of the torque for PT2 decreased with the increase of the stimulation frequency for young (from 184.5 to 140.4% of control values) and elderly (from 140.5 to 109.6%). Regardless of the stimulation frequency, the peak of PAP was greater in young than in elderly and occurred immediately after the conditioning MVC but was delayed for the 100 Hz condition in elderly adults. For PT3, the results were similar although the extent of PAP was less. The PAP of the mechanical contributions within the trains also decreased with the augmentation of the stimulation frequency. For most of the frequencies above 20 Hz, the peak of PAP for each mechanical contribution was delayed by 1 min after the conditioning MVC. These results indicate an age- and frequency-related PAP saturation of the successive mechanical contributions within a train of stimuli that decrease with time. The functional implication of the findings is that PAP effect is lower and delayed at high compared with low activation rate.

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Acknowlegments

The authors are grateful to Z. Riley for comments on the paper. This study was supported by a grant of the European Community (contract: QLK6-CT-2001-00323) and the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique of Belgium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Applied Biology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Route de Lennik, 808, CP 640, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Stéphane Baudry, Malgorzata Klass & Jacques Duchateau

  2. Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CA, USA

    Stéphane Baudry

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  1. Stéphane Baudry
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  2. Malgorzata Klass
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  3. Jacques Duchateau
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Correspondence to Jacques Duchateau.

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Baudry, S., Klass, M. & Duchateau, J. Postactivation potentiation of short tetanic contractions is differently influenced by stimulation frequency in young and elderly adults. Eur J Appl Physiol 103, 449–459 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0739-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0739-1

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