Application of Muscle/Nerve Stimulation in Health and Disease

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Plasticity of the Mammalian Motor Unit

   • Gerta Vrbová

   Pages 1-22

3. Cardiovascular System: Changes with Exercise Training and Muscle Stimulation

   • Olga Hudlicka

   Pages 23-53

4. Electrical Stimulation as a Therapeutic Tool to Restore Motor Function

   • Gerta Vrbová, Olga Hudlicka, Kristin Schaefer Centofanti

   Pages 55-67

5. Electrical Stimulation for Health, Beauty, Fitness, Sports Training and Rehabilitation

   • Kristin Schaefer Centofanti

   Pages 69-116

6. Back Matter

   Pages 117-118

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The first evidence that electrical changes can cause muscles to contract was p- vided by Galvani (1791). Galvani’s ideas about ‘animal electricity’ were explored during the 19th and 20th century when it was firmly established that ‘electricity’ is one of the most important mechanisms used for communication by the nervous system and muscle. These researches lead to the development of ever more soph- ticated equipment that could either record the electrical changes in nerves and muscles, or elicit functional changes by electrically stimulating these structures. It was indeed the combination of these two methods that elucidated many of the basic principles about the function of the nervous system. Following these exciting findings, it was discovered that electrical stimulation and the functions elicited by it also lead to long-term changes in the properties of nerves and particularly muscles. Recent findings help us to understand the mec- nisms by which activity induced by electrical stimulation can influence mature, fully differentiated cells, in particular muscles, blood vessels and nerves. Electrically elicited activity determines the properties of muscle fibres by activating a sequence of signalling pathways that change the gene expression of the muscle. Thus, elect- cal activity graduated from a simple mechanism that is used to elicit muscle c- traction, to a system that could induce permanent changes in muscles and modify most of its characteristic properties.

• Fitness
• health
• muscle
• physiotherapy
• rehabilitation
• spinal cord
• training
• rehabilitation psychology

• University College Medical School, London, UK

  Gerta Vrbová

• University of Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham, UK

  Olga Hudlicka

• JKC Research Partnership, London, UK

  Kristin Schaefer Centofanti