Muscle fatigue degrades force sense at the ankle joint

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that muscle fatigue impairs the ability to accurately and consistently sense force at the ankle joint, highlighting the impact of fatigue on proprioception.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that muscle fatigue negatively affects force sense at the ankle, using a controlled force matching task.

Findings

Muscle fatigue reduces force matching accuracy.

Fatigue increases variability in force sense.

Force sense degradation is evident under fatigue conditions.

Abstract

To investigate the effects of muscle fatigue on force sense at the ankle joint, 10 young healthy adults were asked to perform an isometric contra-lateral force ankle-matching task in two experimental conditions of: (1) no-fatigue and (2) fatigue of the plantar-flexor muscles. Measures of the overall accuracy and the variability of the force matching performances were determined using the absolute error and the variable error, respectively. Results showed less accurate and less consistent force matching performances in the fatigue than no fatigue condition, as indicated by decreased absolute and variable errors, respectively. The present findings evidence that muscle fatigue degrades force sense at the ankle joint.