Quadriceps muscle strength, contractile properties, and motor unit firing rates in young and old men

Muscle and Nerve

Volumn 22, Issue 8, 1999, Pages 1094-1103

  Roos, Martin R ^a   Rice, Charles L ^a,b   Connelly, Denise M ^a,b   Vandervoort, Anthony A ^a,b  

^a ST JOSEPH S HEALTH CENTRE   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO   (Canada)

Author keywords

Aging; Electromyogram; Electromyography; Force generation; Rate coding

Indexed keywords

AGE; AGED; ARTICLE; CLINICAL ARTICLE; CONTROLLED STUDY; HUMAN; MALE; MOTOR UNIT; MUSCLE CONTRACTILITY; MUSCLE ISOMETRIC CONTRACTION; MUSCLE MASS; MUSCLE STRENGTH; MUSCLE TWITCH; MUSCLE WEAKNESS; NERVE EXCITABILITY; PRIORITY JOURNAL; QUADRICEPS FEMORIS MUSCLE; VASTUS LATERALIS MUSCLE; VASTUS MEDIALIS MUSCLE; VOLUNTARY MOVEMENT;

ADULT; AGE FACTORS; AGED; AGED, 80 AND OVER; ELECTROMYOGRAPHY; HUMANS; MALE; MOTOR NEURONS; MUSCLE CONTRACTION; MUSCLES;

EID: 0032795295     PISSN: 0148639X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4598(199908)22:8<1094::AID-MUS14>3.0.CO;2-G     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Alway S. Slowing of contractile properties in quail skeletal muscle with aging. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 1995;50: B26-B33.
2. Bellemare F, Woods JJ, Johansson R, Bigland-Ritchie B. Motor-unit discharge rates in maximum voluntary contractions of three human muscles. J Neurophysiol 1983;50:1380-1392.
3. Bigland-Ritchie B, Johansson R, Lippold OCJ, Smith S, Woods JJ. Changes in motoneurone firing rates during sustained maximal voluntary contractions. J Physiol 1983;340:335-346.
4. Brooks SV, Faulkner JA. Contractile properties of skeletal muscles from young, adult and aged mice. J Physiol 1988;404: 71-82.
5. Bruce SA, Newton D, Woledge RC. Effect of age on voluntary force and cross-sectional area of human adductor pollicis muscle. Q J Exp Physiol 1989;74:359-362.
6. Carmeli E, Reznick AZ. The physiology and biochemistry of skeletal muscle atrophy as a function of age. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1994;206:103-113.
7. Cole KJ. Grasp force control in older adults. J Motor Behav 1991;23:251-258.
8. De Serres SJ, Enoka RM. Older adults can maximally activate the biceps brachii muscle by voluntary command. J Appl Physiol 1998;84:284-291.
9. Doherty TJ, Vandervoort AA, Brown WF. Effects of ageing on the motor unit: a brief review. Can J Appl Physiol 1993;18: 331-358.
10. Doherty TJ, Vandervoort AA, Taylor AW, Brown WF. Effects of motor unit losses on strength in older men and women. J Appl Physiol 1993;74:868-874.
11. Edwards RHT, Young A, Hosking GP, Jones DA. Human skeletal muscle function: description of tests and normal values. Clin Sci Mol Med 1977;52:283-290.
12. Fiatarone MA, Oneill EF, Ryan ND, Clements KM, Solares GR, Nelson ME, Roberts SB, Kehayias JJ, Lipsitz LA, Evans WJ. Exercise training and nutritional supplementation for physical frailty in very elderly people. N Engl J Med 1994;330: 1769-1775.
13. Fuglevand AJ, Winter DA, Patla AE. Models of recruitment and rate coding organization in motor-unit pools. J Neurophysiol 1993;70:2470-2488.
14. Fryer MW, Neering IR. Actions of caffeine on fast- and slow-twitch muscles of the rat. J Physiol 1989;416:435-454.
15. Galea V, De Bruin H, Cavasin R, McComas AJ. The numbers and relative sizes of motor units estimated by computer. Muscle Nerve 1991;14:1123-1130.
16. Galganski ME, Fuglevand AJ, Enoka RM. Reduced control of motor output in a human hand muscle of elderly subjects during submaximal contractions. J Neurophysiol 1993;69: 2108-2115.
17. Gandevia SC, Allen GM, McKenzie DK. Central fatigue: critical issues, quantification and practical implications. In: Gandevia SC, Enoka RM, McComas AJ, Stuart DG, Thomas CK, editors. Fatigue: neural and muscular mechanisms. New York: Plenum Press; 1995. p 281-294.
18. Grabiner MD, Enoka RM. Changes in movement capabilities with aging. In: Holloszy JO, editor. Exercise and sport sciences reviews. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1995. p 65-104.
19. Harridge SDR, Bottinelli R, Canepari M, Pellegrino MA, Reggiani C, Esbjornsson M, Saltin B. Whole-muscle and single-fibre contractile properties and myosin heavy chain isoforms in humans. Pflugers Arch 1996;432:913-920.
20. Harridge SDR, Kryger A. Muscle activation monitored using the twitch interpolation technique in elderly men and women over 80 years of age undergoing strength training. J Physiol 1997;499:80P.
21. Harridge SDR, Magnusson G, Saltin B. Life-long endurance-trained elderly men have high aerobic power, but have similar muscle strength to non-active elderly men. Aging Clin Exp Res 1997;30:80-87.
22. Hubbard JK, Sampson HW, Elledge JR. Prevalence and morphology of the vastus medialis oblique muscle in human cadavers. Anat Rec 1997;249:135-142.
23. Hurley MV, Rees J, Newham DJ. Quadriceps function, proprioceptive acuity and functional performance in healthy young, middle-aged and elderly subjects. Age Ageing 1998; 27:55-62.
24. Jakobi JM, Cafarelli E. Neuromuscular drive and force production are not altered during bilateral contractions. J Appl Physiol 1998;84:200-206.
25. Johnson MA, Polgar J, Weightman D, Appleton D. Data on the distribution of fiber types in thirty-six human muscles. An autopsy study. J Neurol Sci 1973;18:111-129.
26. Kadhiresan VA, Hassett CA, Faulkner JA. Properties of single motor units in medial gastrocnemius muscles of adult and old rats. J Physiol 1996;493:543-552.
27. Kamen G, Sison SV, Du CCD, Patten C. Motor unit discharge behavior in older adults during maximal-effort contractions. J Appl Physiol 1995;79:1908-1913.
28. Katz R, Mazzocchio R, Penicaud A, Rossi A. Distribution of recurrent inhibition in the human upper limb. Acta Physiol Scand 1993;149:183-198.
29. Kulkulka CG, Clamann HP. Comparison of the recruitment and discharge properties of motor units in human brachial biceps and adductor pollicis during isometric contractions. Brain Res 1981;219:45-55.
30. Larsson L. The age-related motor disability - underlying mechanisms in skeletal muscle at the motor unit, cellular and molecular level. Acta Physiol Scand 1998;163:S27-S29.
31. Lexell J. Human aging, muscle mass, and fiber type composition. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 1995;50:11-16.
32. Narayanan N, Jones DL, Xu A, Yu JC. Effects of aging on sarcoplasmic reticulum function and contraction duration in skeletal muscles of the rat. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 1996;40: C1032-C1040.
33. Narici MV, Bordini M, Cerretelli P. Effect of aging on human adductor pollicis muscle function. J Appl Physiol 1991;71: 1277-1281.
34. Phillips SK, Bruce SA, Newton D, Woledge RC. The weakness of old age in not due to failure of muscle activation. J Gerontol Med Sci 1992;47:M45-M49.
35. Porter MM, Vandervoort AA, Lexell J. Aging of human muscle: structure, function and adaptability. Scand J Med Sci Sports 1995;129-142.
36. Quetelet A. Sur l'homme et le development de ses faculters. Paris: Bachelier Imprimeur-Librairie; 1835.
37. Renganathan M, Messi ML, Delbono O. Dihydropyridine receptor ryanodine receptor uncoupling in aged skeletal muscle. J Membr Biol 1997;157:247-253.
38. Rice CL, Cunningham DA, Paterson DH, Lefcoe MS. Arm and leg composition determined by computed tomography in young and elderly men. Clin Physiol 1989;9:207-220.
39. Rice CL, Vollmer TL, Bigland-Ritchie B. Neuromuscular responses of patients with multiple sclerosis. Muscle Nerve 1992;15:1123-1132.
40. Rich C, O'Brien GL, Cafarelli E. Probabilities associated with counting average motor unit firing rates in active human muscle. Can J Appl Physiol 1998;23:87-94.
41. Roos MR, Rice CL, Vandervoort AA. Age-related changes in motor unit function. Muscle Nerve 1997;20:679-690.
42. Scott SH, Engstrom CM, Loeb GE. Morphometry of human thigh muscles. Determination of fascicle architecture by magnetic resonance imaging. J Anat 1993;182:249-257.
43. Seki K, Narusawa M. Firing rate modulation of human motor units in different muscles during isometric contraction with various forces. Brain Res 1996;719:1-7.
44. Stashuk D, Qu Y. Robust method for estimating motor unit firing-pattern statistics. Med Biol Eng Comput 1996;34:50-57.
45. Vandervoort AA, McComas AJ. Contractile changes in opposing muscles of the human ankle joint. J Appl Physiol 1986; 61:361-367.
46. Wolf SL, Kim JH. Morphological analysis of the human tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius muscles. Acta Anat 1997; 158:287-295.