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Brain Activity During Unilateral Physical and Imagined Isometric Contractions.

ABSTRACT: By convention, it is believed that the ipsilateral side of the body is controlled by the contralateral side of the brain. Past studies measuring brain activity primarily recorded changes before and after an intervention is performed on one side of the body within one hemisphere (usually the contralateral) of the brain. The purpose of this investigation was to observe the brain activity within the left and right hemispheres of the prefrontal and sensorimotor cortices during physical and imagined, dominant and non-dominant unilateral isometric elbow flexion. Fifteen right hand dominant individuals (six males and nine females) between the ages of 18 and 21 performed four different isometric contractions of their biceps brachii at a preacher curl bench: dominant physical contraction (DomCon), non-dominant physical contraction (NonCon), dominant imagined contraction (DomImagine), and non-dominant imagined contraction (NonImagine). Each contraction was sustained for 5 s followed by 30 s of rest. Motor activity-related cortical potential (MRCP) and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) within the right and left hemispheres of the sensorimotor and prefrontal cortices were determined for each condition at 500-1,000 ms and 2,000-2,500 ms after initiation of contraction. MRCP and ERSP were both changed at the 500-1,000 ms time window for all conditions. Changes in the 2,000-2,500 ms window were most consistently observed during physical contractions. While the changes during DomCon occurred in the left (contralateral) side of the brain, the greatest changes observed in MRCP and ERSP occurred in both sides of the brain during the NonCon condition. Further understanding of bilateral changes in brain activity during unilateral tasks is valuable for improving rehabilitation practices through mental and physical exercise.

SUBMITTER: Martinez JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7004234 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brain Activity During Unilateral Physical and Imagined Isometric Contractions.

Martinez Jonathan A JA Wittstein Matthew W MW Folger Stephen F SF Bailey Stephen P SP

Frontiers in human neuroscience 20191126

By convention, it is believed that the ipsilateral side of the body is controlled by the contralateral side of the brain. Past studies measuring brain activity primarily recorded changes before and after an intervention is performed on one side of the body within one hemisphere (usually the contralateral) of the brain. The purpose of this investigation was to observe the brain activity within the left and right hemispheres of the prefrontal and sensorimotor cortices during physical and imagined, ...[more]

PMID: 32082130

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Project description:BackgroundThe relationship between muscle anatomy and physiology and its corresponding electromyography activity (EMGA) is complex and not well understood. EMGA models may be broadly divided in stochastic and motor-unit-based models. For example, these models have successfully described many muscle physiological variables such as the value of the muscle fiber velocity and the linear relationship between median frequency and muscle fiber velocity. However they cannot explain the behavior of many of these variables with changes in intramuscular temperature, or muscle PH acidity, for instance. Here, we propose that the motor unit action potential can be treated as an electromagnetic resonant mode confined at thermal equilibrium inside the muscle. The motor units comprising the muscle form a system of standing waves or modes, where the energy of each mode is proportional to its frequency. Therefore, the power spectral density of the EMGA is well described and fit by Planck's law and from its distribution we developed theoretical relationships that explain the behavior of known physiological variables with changes in intramuscular temperature or muscle PH acidity, for instance.MethodsEMGA of the calf muscle was recorded during posture maintenance in seven participants and during controlled isometric contractions in two participants. The power spectral density of the EMGA was then fit with the Planckian distribution. Then, we inferred nine theoretical relationships from the distribution and compared the theoretically derived values with experimentally obtained values.ResultsThe power spectral density of EMGA was fit by Planckian distributions and all the theoretical relationships were validated by experimental results.ConclusionsOnly by considering the motor unit action potentials as electromagnetic resonant modes confined at thermal equilibrium inside the muscle suffices to predict known or new theoretical relationships for muscle physiological variables that other models have failed to do.

Project description:The seemingly uniform striation pattern of skeletal muscles, quantified in terms of sarcomere lengths (SLs), is inherently non-uniform across all hierarchical levels. The SL non-uniformity theory has been used to explain the force creep in isometric contractions, force depression following shortening of activated muscle, and residual force enhancement following lengthening of activated muscle. Our understanding of sarcomere contraction dynamics has been derived primarily from in vitro experiments using regular bright-field light microscopy or laser diffraction techniques to measure striation/diffraction patterns in isolated muscle fibers or myofibrils. However, the collagenous extracellular matrices present around the muscle fibers, as well as the complex architecture in the whole muscles may lead to different contraction dynamics of sarcomeres than seen in the in vitro studies. Here, we used multi-photon excitation microscopy to visualize in situ individual sarcomeres in intact muscle tendon units (MTUs) of mouse tibialis anterior (TA), and quantified the temporal changes of SL distribution as a function of SLs in relaxed and maximally activated muscles for quasi-steady state, fixed-end isometric conditions. The corresponding muscle forces were simultaneously measured using a force transducer. We found that SL non-uniformity, quantified by the coefficient of variation (CV) of SLs, decreased at a rate of 1.9-3.1%/s in the activated muscles, but remained constant in the relaxed muscles. The force loss during the quasi-steady state likely did not play a role in the decrease of SL non-uniformity, as similar force losses were found in the activated and relaxed muscles, but the CV of SLs in the relaxed muscles underwent negligible change over time. We conclude that sarcomeres in the mid-belly of maximally contracting whole muscles constantly re-organize their lengths into a more uniform pattern over time. The molecular mechanisms accounting for SL non-uniformity appear to differ in active and passive muscles, and need further elucidation, as do the functional implications of the SL non-uniformity.

Project description:BackgroundFemales are typically less fatigable than males during sustained isometric contractions at lower isometric contraction intensities. This sex difference in fatigability becomes more variable during higher intensity isometric and dynamic contractions. While less fatiguing than isometric or concentric contractions, eccentric contractions induce greater and longer lasting impairments in force production. However, it is not clear how muscle weakness influences fatigability in males and females during sustained isometric contractions.MethodsWe investigated the effects of eccentric exercise-induced muscle weakness on time to task failure (TTF) during a sustained submaximal isometric contraction in young (18-30 years) healthy males (n = 9) and females (n = 10). Participants performed a sustained isometric contraction of the dorsiflexors at 35° plantar flexion by matching a 30% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) torque target until task failure (i.e., falling below 5% of their target torque for ≥2 s). The same sustained isometric contraction was repeated 30 min after 150 maximal eccentric contractions. Agonist and antagonist activation were assessed using surface electromyography over the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles, respectively.ResultsMales were ∼41% stronger than females. Following eccentric exercise both males and females experienced an ∼20% decline in maximal voluntary contraction torque. TTF was ∼34% longer in females than males prior to eccentric exercise-induced muscle weakness. However, following eccentric exercise-induced muscle weakness, this sex-related difference was abolished, with both groups having an ∼45% shorter TTF. Notably, there was ∼100% greater antagonist activation in the female group during the sustained isometric contraction following exercise-induced weakness as compared to the males.ConclusionThis increase in antagonist activation disadvantaged females by decreasing their TTF, resulting in a blunting of their typical fatigability advantage over males.

Dataset Information

Brain Activity During Unilateral Physical and Imagined Isometric Contractions.

Publications

Brain Activity During Unilateral Physical and Imagined Isometric Contractions.

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