Neuromuscular Activity Determines, at Least in Part, the Motoneuron, Nerve and Muscle Properties Under Normal Conditions and After Nerve Injury

TL;DR

This review explores how the pattern and amount of neuromuscular activity influence motoneuron, nerve, and muscle properties under normal and injured conditions.

Contribution

The paper argues that the amount of neuromuscular activity, rather than its pattern, may be a key determinant of muscle and motoneuron properties.

Findings

Low-frequency electrical stimulation can convert fast-twitch muscle properties to slow-twitch ones.

Motoneuron and muscle properties vary continuously with the amount of electrical stimulation applied.

Endurance and intermittent exercise programs affect neuromuscular properties in both healthy and injured individuals.

Abstract

Whether pattern or amount of daily activity determines neuromuscular properties is the focus of this review. The fast-to-slow conversion of many properties of fast-twitch muscles, by stimulating their nerves electrically with the continuous low-frequency pattern typical of slow motoneurons, argued that muscle properties are determined by their pattern of activity. However, the composition of the motor units (MUs) in almost all muscles is heterogeneous, with the MUs grouped into slow, fast-fatigue-resistant and fast-fatigable types that match corresponding histochemical fiber types. Nonetheless, their contractile forces lie on a continuum, with MUs recruited into activity in order of their size. This ‘size principle’ of MU organization and function applies in normally innervated and reinnervated muscles and, importantly, begs the question of whether it is the amount rather than the pattern of the MU activation that determines their properties. Experimental evidence that uniform daily amounts of ~<0.5, 5%, and 50% ES, converted motoneuron, nerve, and muscle properties to one physiological and histochemical type, argued in favor of the amount of activity determining MU properties. Yet, that the properties were not confined to the expected narrow range argued that factors other than the pattern and/or amount of neuromuscular activity must be considered. These include the progressive increase in the synaptic inputs onto motoneurons. The range of the effects of endurance and intermittent exercise programs on healthy subjects and those suffering nerve injuries and disease is also consistent with the argument that factors other than pattern or amount of neuromuscular activity should be investigated.

Figures