ArticleJournal of neurophysiology2022
Startling stimuli increase maximal motor unit discharge rate and rate of force development in humans.
Article in Journal of neurophysiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Six weeks of isometric resistance training led to evidence of corticospinal but not reticulospinal adaptation in previously untrained adult males.Experimental brain research · 2026Trial
- Resistance training tempo selectively modulates corticospinal and reticulospinal excitability in humans.The Journal of physiology · 2026Trial
- Determining the cortical, corticospinal, and reticulospinal responses to metronome-paced and self-paced strength training.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- Novel evidence of age-related cortical and subcortical constraints in cross-education.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Age-related differences in corticospinal and reticulospinal adaptations to short-term strength training.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Evidence for Increased High Alpha Intermuscular Coherence as a Measure of Reticulospinal Motor Drive.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Corticospinal, reticulospinal and motoneuronal contributions to fatigability during a sustained contraction of the elbow flexors.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Breathing-driven modulation of reticulospinal tract activity.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Motor unit discharge properties of the vastii muscles and their modulation with contraction level depend on the knee-joint angle.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2026Article
- Neuromuscular mechanisms for the fast decline in rate of force development with muscle disuse - a narrative review.The Journal of physiology · 2026Review
- Greater muscle electrode distance and fat mass affect motor units identification from high-density surface EMG in the vastus lateralis muscle.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Reticulospinal and corticospinal responses in long-term strength-trained and untrained adults.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Article
- Influence of local temperature on motor unit behavior during rapid contractions in humans.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Article
- No Differences in Motor Units Discharge Rate Between Females and Males in Explosive Ankle Dorsiflexions.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2025Article
- Comparison of the reticulospinal drive to lumbar erector spinae muscles in postural and voluntary tasks using the StartReact paradigm.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Reticulospinal modulation of muscle activation and electromechanical coupling: evidence from the StartReact paradigm.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Greater motor unit discharge rate during rapid contractions in chronically strength-trained individuals.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Age-related changes in reticulospinal contributions to anticipatory postural adjustments between back extensors and abdominal muscles.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Evaluating peripheral neuromuscular function with brief movement-evoked pain.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Activity in the pontine reticular nuclei scales with handgrip force in humans.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Maximal rate of force development in adult humans is determined by the maximal motor unit discharge rate, however, the origin of the underlying synaptic inputs remains unclear. Here, we tested a hypothesis that the maximal motor unit discharge rate will increase in response to a startling cue, a stimulus that purportedly activates the pontomedullary reticular formation neurons that make mono- and disynaptic connections to motoneurons via fast-conducting axons. Twenty-two men were required to produce isometric knee extensor forces "as fast and as hard" as possible from rest to 75% of maximal voluntary force, in response to visual (VC), visual-auditory (VAC; 80 dB), or visual-startling cue (VSC; 110 dB). Motoneuron activity was estimated via decomposition of high-density surface electromyogram recordings over the vastus lateralis and medialis muscles. Reaction time was significantly shorter in response to VSC compared with VAC and VC. The VSC further elicited faster neuromechanical responses including a greater number of discharges per motor unit per second and greater maximal rate of force development, with no differences between VAC and VC. We provide evidence, for the first time, that the synaptic input to motoneurons increases in response to a startling cue, suggesting a contribution of subcortical pathways to maximal motoneuron output in humans.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.