ArticleCureus2025
Practicing Active Control of Thumb Force Alters the Excitability of Anterior Horn Cells of the Spinal Cord.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and objective The H-reflex amplitude of certain muscles, such as the wrist and ankle, decreases immediately after performing a force control task that actively controls muscle output. However, this was unknown for the fingers. Therefore, the effect of force control exercises on the excitability of anterior horn cells of the spinal cord in the thumb was investigated using F waves. Materials and methods The participants were 15 healthy subjects. The exercise was to control the palmar abduction of the finger on the non-dominant hand side to 20% MVC (maximum voluntary contraction: MVC). In the force control task, visual information was used to actively control muscle output. In the non-force control task, participants were instructed to hold the thumb in a palmar abduction position against a constant external load, using isometric muscle contraction to maintain the posture without visual feedback or force modulation. Each task was practiced 10 times for 90 seconds, and the F wave was derived from the short abductor pollicis brevis muscle pre- and post-assignment at rest. The F/M amplitude ratio and frequency of appearance were used as analysis items; the F/M amplitude ratio was defined as the average of the vertex-to-vertex amplitudes of the 30 F waves obtained in one stimulus divided by the maximum amplitude value of the M wave, expressed as a percentage. Persistence was defined as the number of F waves that appeared for the number of stimuli in one trial and expressed as a percentage. Motor performance was assessed by performing controlled movements of 20% MVC of the thumb palmar abduction pre- and post-task with visual deprivation. Results In the force control task, the F/M amplitude ratio decreased post-task compared to pre-task. In the non-force control task, no differences were found between pre- and post-task. There were no differences in motor performance before and after practice for both tasks. Conclusion In the force control task, there was a decrease in the amplitude F/M ratio post-task. Furthermore, this decrease in the amplitude F/M ratio was thought to be due to active force control.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.