ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
The effect of activation level on muscle function during locomotion: are optimal lengths and velocities always used?
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neural networks estimate muscle force in dynamic conditions better than Hill-type muscle models.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Rat superficial masseter operates at long lengths during biting.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Regional Heterogeneity in Vastus Lateralis Architecture Influences Fascicle Behavior During In Vivo Contractions.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2025Article
- Does force depression resulting from shortening against series elasticity contribute to the activation dependence of optimum length?American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2025Article
- Does the unusual phenomenon of sustained force circumvent the speed-endurance trade-off in the jaw muscle of the southern alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata)?The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Investigating in vivo force and work production of rat medial gastrocnemius at varying locomotor speeds using a muscle avatar.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Linking in vivo muscle dynamics to force-length and force-velocity properties reveals that guinea fowl lateral gastrocnemius operates at shorter than optimal lengths.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- LinkingbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Muscle prestimulation tunes velocity preflex in simulated perturbed hopping.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Effect of muscle stimulation intensity on the heterogeneous function of regions within an architecturally complex muscle.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2021Article
- Modeling muscle function using experimentally determined subject-specific muscle properties.Journal of biomechanics · 2021Article
- Muscle Belly Gearing Positively Affects the Force-Velocity and Power-Velocity Relationships During Explosive Dynamic Contractions.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Do muscle contractile properties drive differences in locomotor performance in invasive populations of Xenopus laevis in France?Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2020Article
- Why do Large Animals Never Actuate Their Jumps with Latch-Mediated Springs? Because They can Jump Higher Without Them.Integrative and comparative biology · 2019Article
- The Interaction of Compliance and Activation on the Force-Length Operating Range and Force Generating Capacity of Skeletal Muscle: A Computational Study using a Guinea Fowl Musculoskeletal Model.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2019Article
- Can Strain Dependent Inhibition of Cross-Bridge Binding Explain Shifts in Optimum Muscle Length?Integrative and comparative biology · 2018Article
- Dynamic Musculoskeletal Functional Morphology: Integrating diceCT and XROMM.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2018Article
- Active Viscoelasticity of Sarcomeres.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2018Review
- Comparison of human gastrocnemius forces predicted by Hill-type muscle models and estimated from ultrasound images.The Journal of experimental biology · 2017Article
- Muscle-spring dynamics in time-limited, elastic movements.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Skeletal muscle exhibits broad functional diversity, despite its inherent length and velocity constraints. The observed variation in morphology and physiology is assumed to have evolved to allow muscle to operate at its optimal length and velocity during locomotion. Here, we used the variation in optimum lengths and velocities that occurs with muscle activation level to experimentally test this assumption. Muscle ergometry and sonomicrometry were used to characterize force-length and power-velocity relationships, and in vivo operating lengths and velocities, at a range of activation levels. Operating lengths and velocities were mapped onto activation level specific force-length and power-velocity relationships to determine whether they tracked changing optima. Operating velocities decreased in line with decreased optimal velocities, suggesting that optimal velocities are always used. However, operating lengths did not change with changing optima. At high activation levels, fibres used an optimal range of lengths. However, at lower activation levels, fibres appeared to operate on the ascending limb of sub-maximally activated force-length relationships. This suggests that optimal lengths are only used when demand is greatest. This study provides the first mapping of operating lengths to activation level-specific optima, and as such, provides insight into our assumptions about the factors that determine muscle performance during locomotion.
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Registered trials
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