The effect of small changes in rate of force development on muscle fascicle velocity and motor unit discharge behaviour

When rate of force development is increased, neural drive increases. There is presently no accepted explanation for this effect. We propose and experimentally test the theory that a small increase in rate of force development increases medial gastrocnemius fascicle shortening velocity, reducing the muscle’s force-generating capacity, leading to active motor units being recruited at lower forces and with increased discharge frequencies. Participants produced plantar flexion torques at three different rates of force development (slow: 2% MVC/s, medium: 10% MVC/s, fast: 20% MVC/s). Ultrasound imaging showed that increased rate of force development was related to higher fascicle shortening velocity (0.4 ± 0.2 mm/s, 2.0 ± 0.9 mm/s, 4.1 ± 1.9 mm/s in slow, medium, fast, respectively). In separate experiments, medial gastrocnemius motor unit recruitment thresholds and discharge frequencies were measured using fine-wire electromyography (EMG), together with surface EMG. Recruitment thresholds were lower in the fast (12.8 ± 9.2% MVC) and medium (14.5 ± 9.9% MVC) conditions compared to the slow (18.2 ± 8.9% MVC) condition. The initial discharge frequency was lower in the slow (5.8 ± 3.1 Hz) than the fast (6.7 ± 1.4 Hz), but not than the medium (6.4 ± 2.4 Hz) condition. The surface EMG was greater in the fast (mean RMS: 0.029 ± 0.017 mV) compared to the slow condition (0.019 ± 0.013 mV). We propose that the increase in muscle fascicle shortening velocity reduces the force-generating capacity of the muscle, therefore requiring greater neural drive to generate the same forces. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00421-022-04905-7.