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J Neurophysiol 88: 265-276, 2002;
0022-3077/02 $5.00
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The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 88 No. 1 July 2002, pp. 265-276
Copyright ©2002 by the American Physiological Society

Motor-Unit Synchronization Alters Spike-Triggered Average Force in Simulated Contractions

Anna M. Taylor, Julie W. Steege, and Roger M. Enoka

Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0354

Taylor, Anna M., Julie W. Steege, and Roger M. Enoka. Motor-Unit Synchronization Alters Spike-Triggered Average Force in Simulated Contractions. J. Neurophysiol. 88: 265-276, 2002. The purpose of the study was to quantify the effect of motor-unit synchronization on the spike-triggered average forces of a population of motor units. Muscle force was simulated by defining mechanical and activation characteristics of the motor units, specifying motor neuron discharge times, and imposing various levels of motor-unit synchronization. The model comprised 120 motor units. Simulations were performed for motor units 5-120 to compare the spike-triggered average responses in the presence and absence of motor-unit synchronization with the motor-unit twitch characteristics defined in the model. To synchronize motor-unit activity, selected motor-unit discharge times were adjusted; this kept the number of action potentials constant across the three levels of synchrony for each motor unit. Because there was some overlap of motor-unit twitches even at minimal discharge rates, the simulations indicated that spike-triggered averaging underestimates the twitch force of all motor units and the contraction time of motor units with contraction times longer than 49 ms. Although motor-unit synchronization increased the estimated twitch force and decreased the estimated contraction time of all motor units, spike-triggered average force changed systematically with the level of synchrony in motor units 59-120 (upper 90% of the range of twitch forces). However, the reduction in contraction time was similar for moderate and high synchrony. In conclusion, spike-triggered averaging appears to provide a biased estimate of the distribution of twitch properties for a population of motor units because twitch fusion causes an underestimation of twitch force for slow units and motor-unit synchronization causes an overestimation of force for fast motor units.




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