Motor units and muscle force Flashcards

1
Q

What is a motor neuron?

A

efferent neuron
motor cortex
brainstem
spinal cord
innervate muscles and glands to enable voluntary and involuntary motions

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2
Q

What is a Motor unit?

A

1 motor neuron and its innervated muscle fibers

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3
Q

What is a motor nucleus?

A

cluster of cell bodies of (hundred) motor neurons that innervate the same muscle

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4
Q

What is an afferent/efferent impulse?

A

afferent: from sensory organ to nervous system
efferent: from nervous system to effector organs

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5
Q

What are the different kinds of motor neurons?

A

alpha motorneuron: send info to skeletal muscles
gamma: send info to the muscle spindle fibers –> adjust the sensitivity of muscle spindle

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6
Q

what is an agonist muscle?

A

contract to create force and enable a movement

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7
Q

what is an antagonist muscle?

A

oppose the action of an agonist to control and module movements

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8
Q

How does stepping spinal reflex/stretch-reflex work?

A

Stimulus: muscle is stretched –> muscle spindle –> afferent impulse –> spinal cord
Coordination of alpha MN and gamma MN
Alpha MN: Efferent impulses –> contraction of the stretched muscles + inhibit contraction of antagonistic muscles
gamma MN just the sensitivity of muscle spindles

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9
Q

What is an innervation number?

A

number of muscle fibers innervated by a single motor neuron

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10
Q

What is the innervation number used for?

A

indicate the finest control of the muscle
small number –> finer control

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11
Q

What is the distribution of innervation numbers across the population of motor units?

A

Innervation number increases exponentially within a population of MUs –> non-linear
Most motor units innervate fewer fibers, while fewer large ones innervate many fibers.

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12
Q

How much of the fibers have low innervation numbers?

within a muscle e.g. in the first dorsal interosseous muscle

A

50%
innervation nr = 0-900

smaller MUs innervate type I fibers, have low innervation numbers

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13
Q

What are the 2 mechanisms used to control muscle forces, when the muscle develops a force?

A

recruitment - when
rate coding - speed

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14
Q

what is the recruitment threshold?

A

level of stimulation required to activate a motor unit

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15
Q

what is the discharge rate?

A

rate coding
the rate at which each of the active MN discharges APs

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16
Q

What are the relationships between motorneurons’ size and the size of the muscle fibers that they innervate?

A

smaller MN – smaller, slow-twitch muscle fibers – lower forces but more fatigue-resistant
larger MN - larger, fast-twitch muscle fibers - higher forces but fatigue more quickly

17
Q

What is the Henneman’s size principle?

A

the size principle of MN recruitment
order: smaller - recruited before larger ones

18
Q

What is twitch contraction?

A

the menchanical response to a single AP

19
Q

What is contraction time?

A

time it takes the twitch to reach its peak force
1 measure of the contraction speed of the muscle fibers that compose a MU

20
Q

What happens with the action potential in the fast twitch and slow twitch at the motor unit?
regarding the contraction time and the force production

A

slow twitch MUs - weak + long contraction e.g. long-distance running, maintaining posture

fast-twitch MUs - strong + shorter contraction e.g. sprinting, weightlifting

21
Q

What is the difference between the peak force in fast- and slow-twitch motor units?

A

Absolute force: greater for fast-twitch MU at all frequency

22
Q

What is the relationship between the recruitment threshold of a motor unit and the twitch force it produces?

A

linear correlation

23
Q

What is explosive strength?

A

the ability to increase force or torque as quickly as possible during a rapid voluntary contraction realized from a low or resting level
e.g. athlete - sprinting, weightlifting, jumping

24
Q

What is the Rate of force development (RFD)?

A

is derived from the force- or torque-time curves recorded during explosive voluntary contractions (rapid or ballistic actions)

25
Q

What may affect the rate of force development?

A

neural factor/neural activation: the ability to rapid muscle activation e.g. MU discharge rate
early phase of RTD

26
Q

what does it mean by the neural drive to muscles?

A

The neural drive is the ensemble of motor neuron action potentials that reach the muscle per time unit.

27
Q

What is the early adaptation behavior?

A

The behavior of non-linear (~exponential) decrease in discharge rate happened in certain motorneurons

28
Q

What is the Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF)?

A

a matrix V with nonnegative entries –> matrices W + H have only nonnegative entries, lower rank
W: columns as template vectors
H: rows as activations - indicate where these templates in W occur in V

29
Q

what is NMF for? in the context of muscular function investigation

A

Spike trains of MUs contractions factorization