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A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue

Muscle fatigue is a temporary decline in the force and power capacity of skeletal muscle resulting from muscle activity. Because control of muscle is realized at the level of the motor unit (MU), it seems important to consider the physiological properties of motor units when attempting to understand...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Potvin, Jim R., Fuglevand, Andrew J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5473583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28574981
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005581
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author Potvin, Jim R.
Fuglevand, Andrew J.
author_facet Potvin, Jim R.
Fuglevand, Andrew J.
author_sort Potvin, Jim R.
collection PubMed
description Muscle fatigue is a temporary decline in the force and power capacity of skeletal muscle resulting from muscle activity. Because control of muscle is realized at the level of the motor unit (MU), it seems important to consider the physiological properties of motor units when attempting to understand and predict muscle fatigue. Therefore, we developed a phenomenological model of motor unit fatigue as a tractable means to predict muscle fatigue for a variety of tasks and to illustrate the individual contractile responses of MUs whose collective action determines the trajectory of changes in muscle force capacity during prolonged activity. An existing MU population model was used to simulate MU firing rates and isometric muscle forces and, to that model, we added fatigue-related changes in MU force, contraction time, and firing rate associated with sustained voluntary contractions. The model accurately estimated endurance times for sustained isometric contractions across a wide range of target levels. In addition, simulations were run for situations that have little experimental precedent to demonstrate the potential utility of the model to predict motor unit fatigue for more complicated, real-world applications. Moreover, the model provided insight into the complex orchestration of MU force contributions during fatigue, that would be unattainable with current experimental approaches.
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spelling pubmed-54735832017-06-26 A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue Potvin, Jim R. Fuglevand, Andrew J. PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Muscle fatigue is a temporary decline in the force and power capacity of skeletal muscle resulting from muscle activity. Because control of muscle is realized at the level of the motor unit (MU), it seems important to consider the physiological properties of motor units when attempting to understand and predict muscle fatigue. Therefore, we developed a phenomenological model of motor unit fatigue as a tractable means to predict muscle fatigue for a variety of tasks and to illustrate the individual contractile responses of MUs whose collective action determines the trajectory of changes in muscle force capacity during prolonged activity. An existing MU population model was used to simulate MU firing rates and isometric muscle forces and, to that model, we added fatigue-related changes in MU force, contraction time, and firing rate associated with sustained voluntary contractions. The model accurately estimated endurance times for sustained isometric contractions across a wide range of target levels. In addition, simulations were run for situations that have little experimental precedent to demonstrate the potential utility of the model to predict motor unit fatigue for more complicated, real-world applications. Moreover, the model provided insight into the complex orchestration of MU force contributions during fatigue, that would be unattainable with current experimental approaches. Public Library of Science 2017-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5473583/ /pubmed/28574981 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005581 Text en © 2017 Potvin, Fuglevand http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Potvin, Jim R.
Fuglevand, Andrew J.
A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
title A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
title_full A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
title_fullStr A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
title_full_unstemmed A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
title_short A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
title_sort motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5473583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28574981
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005581
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