Transcranial magnetic (TMS) and motor point stimulation have been used to determine voluntary activation (VA). However, very few studies have directly compared the two stimulation techniques for assessing VA of the elbow flexors. The purpose of this study was to compare TMS and motor point stimulation for assessing VA in non-fatigued and fatigued elbow flexors. Participants performed a fatigue ...

The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) current intensity and pulse width applied to the right elbow flexors on the discharge characteristics of motor units in the left biceps brachii. Three NMES current intensities were applied for 5 s with either narrow (0.2 ms) or wide (1 ms) stimulus pulses: one at 80% of motor threshold and two...

In the mid sixties, Feldman (1966) reported on experiments on feedback control processes that stabilize the human arm. In a typical test, the elbow flexors (or extensors) would be loaded and the subject was asked to maintain a predetermined elbow angle. After a sudden decrease of the load, the forearm would settle at a new position. The experiments were repeated for the same initial elbow posit...

OBJECTIVES To examine non-local muscle fatigue (NLMF) in both contralateral homologous and non-related heterogonous muscles for both sexes. METHODS Ten men and nine women participated in this study. After the familiarization visit, subjects completed four separate randomly sequenced experimental visits, during which the fatiguing interventions (six sets of 30-second maximal isometric contract...

It is generally accepted that our sense of limb position and movement is provided, in part, by signals from muscle spindles, while the sense of muscle force derives from signals in tendon organs. Experiments are described here, using human subjects, in which the effects of eccentric and concentric exercise of elbow flexor muscles are compared on the sense of forearm position and the sense of te...

Forelimb posture has been a controversial aspect of reconstructing locomotor behaviour in extinct quadrupedal tetrapods. This is partly owing to the qualitative and subjective nature of typical methods, which focus on bony articulations that are often ambiguous and unvalidated postural indicators. Here we outline a new, quantitatively based forelimb posture index that is applicable to a majorit...

BACKGROUND Loss of elbow flexion due to traumatic palsy of the brachial plexus represents a major functional handicap.Then, the first goal in the treatment of the flail arm is to restore the elbow flexion by primary direct nerve surgery or secondary reconstructive surgery. There are various methods to restore elbow flexion which are well documented in the medical literature but the most known a...

1. The effects of maximum voluntary eccentric muscle actions on forearm flexor strength were studied at three different elbow joint angles (0.87, 1.57 and 2.79 rad) to examine whether subsequent impairment of contractile function is muscle length-specific. 2. A bout of 70 maximum voluntary eccentric muscle actions performed with the forearm flexors elicited delayed muscle soreness, efflux of cr...