Biomechanical conditioning of the motor unit transitory force decrease following a reduction in stimulation rate

BACKGROUND: The biomechanical background of the transitory force decrease following a sudden reduction in the stimulation frequency under selected experimental conditions was studied on fast resistant motor units (MUs) of rat medial gastrocnemius in order to better understand the mechanisms of changes in force transmission. METHODS: Firstly, MUs were stimulated with three-phase trains of stimuli (low–high–low frequency pattern) to identify patterns when the strongest force decrease (3–36.5%) following the middle high frequency stimulation was observed. Then, in the second part of experiments, the MUs which presented the largest force decrease in the last low-frequency phase were alternatively tested under one of five conditions to analyse the influence of biomechanical factors of the force decrease: (1) determine the influence of muscle stretch on amplitude of the force decrease, (2) determine the numbers of interpulse intervals necessary to evoke the studied phenomenon, (3) study the influence of coactivation of other MUs on the studied force decrease, (4) test the presence of the transitory force decrease at progressive changes in stimulation frequency, (5) and perform mathematical analysis of changes in twitch-shape responses to individual stimuli within a tetanus phase with the studied force decrease. RESULTS: Results indicated that (1) the force decrease was highest when the muscle passive stretch was optimal for the MU twitch (100 mN); (2) the middle high-frequency burst of stimuli composed of at least several pulses was able to evoke the force decrease; (3) the force decrease was eliminated by a coactivation of 10% or more MUs in the examined muscle; (4) the transitory force decrease occured also at the progressive decrease in stimulation frequency; and (5) a mathematical decomposition of contractions with the transitory force decrease into twitch-shape responses to individual stimuli revealed that the force decrease in question results from the decrease of twitch forces and a shortening in contraction time whereas further force restitution is related to the prolongation of relaxation. CONCLUSIONS: High sensitivity to biomechanical conditioning indicates that the transitory force decrease is dependent on disturbances in the force transmission predominantly by collagen surrounding active muscle fibres.