The relationship between the rate of rise of isometric tension and motor unit recruitment in a human forearm muscle.

The recruitment properties of single motor units from the human extensor indicis muscle were investigated during voluntary isometric contractions of different rate of rise but equal amplitude. Both the electrical and the contractile events associated with recruitment were analyzed. The threshold force of recruitment (measured as the total muscle force at firing onset) decreased with increasing rate of rise of isometric tension. This was consistently found for all units. Differences between low and high threshold units indicating a preferential tonic or phasic mode of activation were not observed. The contractile events associated with recruitment were analyzed analoguously to the electrical events. For this purpose, muscle force was measured at the time of the first twitch as it was measured at the time of the first spike. This separate measurement of the electrical and mechanical recruitment of a unit is necessary, because during a change of muscle force, force is different at firing onset and during the subsequent twitch contraction. Muscle tension at the time of the peak of the first twitch contraction was calculated from measurements of the twitch concentration time of the single motor units. In contrast to firing onset, the peak of the first twitch of a motor unit occurs at approximately the same muscle tension no matter how fast the contraction is performed. This is the consequence of the result that the average decrease of the threshold force of recruitment at successively faster contraction has the same value as the corresponding increase of total muscle force during the mean contraction time of the motor units. On the basis of this precise matching between these two changes, the mechanical recruitment of motor units occurs at approximately the same force level irrespective of the rate of rise of tension.