ArticleThe Journal of physiology2009
Recruitment and rate coding organisation for soleus motor units across entire range of voluntary isometric plantar flexions.
Article in The Journal of physiology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed.
- Voluntary activation of the ankle dorsiflexors is overestimated using the interpolated twitch technique with electrical stimulation.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Yank-related changes in corticospinal recruitment gain in humans.Brain research · 2026Article
- Analysis of motor units with high-density surface electromyography: methodological considerations and physiological significance.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Review
- Neuromuscular Activity Determines, at Least in Part, the Motoneuron, Nerve and Muscle Properties Under Normal Conditions and After Nerve Injury.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Intermittent hypoxia enhances voluntary activation and reduces performance fatigability during repeated lower limb contractions.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Changes in motor unit behaviour across repeated bouts of eccentric exercise.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Onion skin is not a universal firing pattern for spinal motoneurons: simulation study.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Association between physical fitness tests and neuromuscular properties.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Article
- Intrinsic motoneuron properties in typical human development.The Journal of physiology · 2024Article
- Modified motor unit properties in residual muscle following transtibial amputation.Journal of neural engineering · 2024Article
- Spatial Dependence of Log-Transformed Electromyography-Force Relation: Model-Based Sensitivity Analysis and Experimental Study of Biceps Brachii.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- A geometric approach to quantifying the neuromodulatory effects of persistent inward currents on individual motor unit discharge patterns.Journal of neural engineering · 2023Article
- Differences in psychological readiness for return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament injury is evident in thigh musculature motor unit characteristics.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2023Article
- The control and training of single motor units in isometric tasks are constrained by a common input signal.eLife · 2022Article
- Neuromotor control associates with muscle weakness observed with McArdle sign of multiple sclerosis.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2022Article
- A computational approach for generating continuous estimates of motor unit discharge rates and visualizing population discharge characteristics.Journal of neural engineering · 2022Article
- The Cellular Basis for the Generation of Firing Patterns in Human Motor Units.Advances in neurobiology · 2022Article
- Firing rate trajectories of human occipitofrontalis motor units in response to triangular voluntary contraction intensity.Experimental brain research · 2021Article
- Integration of neural architecture within a finite element framework for improved neuromusculoskeletal modeling.Scientific reports · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Unlike upper limb muscles, it remains undocumented as to how motor units in the soleus muscle are organised in terms of recruitment range and discharge rates with respect to their recruitment and de-recruitment thresholds. The possible influence of neuromodulation, such as persistent inward currents (PICs) on lower limb motor unit recruitment and discharge rates has also yet to be reported. To address these issues, electromyographic (EMG) activities from the soleus muscle were recorded using selective branched-wire intramuscular electrodes during ramp-and-hold contractions with intensities up to maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). The multiple single motor unit activities were then derived using a decomposition technique. The onset-offset hysteresis of motor unit discharge, i.e. a difference between recruitment and de-recruitment thresholds, as well as PIC magnitude calculated by a paired motor unit analysis were used to examine the neuromodulatory effects on discharge behaviours, such as minimum firing rate, peak firing rate and degree of increase in firing rate. Forty-two clearly identified motor units from five subjects revealed that soleus motor units are recruited progressively from rest to contraction strengths close to 95% of MVC, with low-threshold motor units discharging action potentials slower at their recruitment and with a lower peak rate than later recruited high-threshold units. This observation is in contrast to the 'onion skin phenomenon' often reported for the upper limb muscles. Based on positive correlations of the peak discharge rates, initial rates and recruitment order of the units with the magnitude of the onset-offset hysteresis and not PIC contribution, we conclude that discharge behaviours among motor units appear to be related to a variation in an intrinsic property other than PICs.
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