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Potentiation of the first and second phases of the M wave after maximal voluntary contractions in the biceps brachii muscle

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Abstract

The study was undertaken to examine separately the potentiation of the first and second phases of the M wave in biceps brachii after conditioning maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of different durations. M waves were evoked in the biceps brachii muscle before and after isometric MVCs of 1, 3, 6, 10, 30, and 60 s. The amplitude, duration, and area of the first and second phases of monopolar M waves were measured during the 10-min period following each contraction. Our results indicated that the amplitude and area of the M-wave first phase increased after MVCs of long (≥ 30 s) duration (P < 0.05), while it decreased after MVCs of short (≤ 10 s) duration (P < 0.05). The enlargement after the long MVCs persisted for 5 min, whereas the depression after the short contractions lasted only for 15 s. The amplitude of the second phase increased immediately (1 s) after all MVCs tested (P < 0.05), regardless of their duration, and then returned rapidly (10 s) to control levels. Unexpectedly, the amplitude of the second phase decreased below control values between 15 s and 1 min after the MVCs lasting ≥ 6 s (P < 0.05). Our results reinforce the idea that the presence of fatigue is a necessary condition to induce an enlargement of the M-wave first phase and that this enlargement would be greater (and occur sooner) in muscles with a predominance of type II fibers (quadriceps and biceps brachii) compared to type-I predominant muscles (tibialis anterior). The unique findings observed for the M-wave second phase indicate that changes in this phase are highly muscle dependent.

Left panel—Representative examples of M waves recorded in one participant before (control) and at various times after conditioning maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of short (a1) and long (a2) duration. Left panel—Time course of recovery of the amplitude of the first (b1) and second (b2) phases of the M wave after conditioning MVCs of different durations.

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Abbreviations

AmpliFIRST :

Amplitude of the first phase of the M wave

AmpliSECOND :

Amplitude of the second phase of the M wave

AmpliPP :

Amplitude resulting from the sum of AmpliFIRST and AmpliSECOND

AreaFIRST :

Area of the first phase of the M wave

AreaSECOND :

Area of the second phase of the M wave

AreaTOTAL :

Area resulting from the sum of AreaFIRST and AreaSECOND

DurFIRST :

Duration of the first phase of the M wave

DurSECOND :

Duration of the second phase of the M wave

DurPP :

Time interval between the first and second peaks of the M wave

EMG:

Electromyography

MVC:

Maximal voluntary contraction

M wave:

Compound muscle action potential

RF:

Rectus femoris

SD:

Standard deviation

SE:

Standard error of the mean

VL:

Vastus lateralis

VM:

Vastus medialis

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Grants

This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), under the TEC2014-58947-R project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronical Engineering, Public University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Javier Rodriguez-Falces

  2. Department of Electrical and Electronical Engineering, Universidad Pública de Navarra D.I.E.E, Campus de Arrosadía s/n, 31006, Pamplona, Spain

    Javier Rodriguez-Falces

  3. Laboratory for Engineering of the Neuromuscular System (LISiN), Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

    Taian Vieira & Alberto Botter

  4. Institute of Sport Sciences, Faculty of Biology Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Nicolas Place

Authors
  1. Javier Rodriguez-Falces
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  2. Taian Vieira
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Contributions

J.R-F, A. B, T. V, and N. P designed the experimental study; J.R-F, A. B, and T. V performed the experiments; J.R-F and A. B analyzed the data; J.R-F, A. B, T. V, and N. P interpreted the results of the experiments; J.R-F drafted the manuscript; J.R-F, A. B, T. V, and N. P edited and revised the manuscript; J.R-F, A. B, T. V, and N. P approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Javier Rodriguez-Falces.

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Approval for the project was obtained from the local Ethics Committee, and all procedures used in this study conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Rodriguez-Falces, J., Vieira, T., Place, N. et al. Potentiation of the first and second phases of the M wave after maximal voluntary contractions in the biceps brachii muscle. Med Biol Eng Comput 57, 2231–2244 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-019-02025-7

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