Abstract: Abstract The activation signal sent by the nervous system to evoke a muscle contraction is discharged by motor neurons in the spinal cord and travels along a peripheral nerve to excite selected muscle fibers. On average, a muscle is innervated by a few hundred motor neurons and each motor neuron connects to several hundred muscle fibers. The functional control element is a single motor neuron and the muscle fibers it innervates, which is known as a motor unit, and all muscle contractions involve grading the amount of motor unit activity. The nervous system can vary muscle force by controlling the number of motor units that are activated and the rate at which each active motor unit discharges an activation signal. Despite considerable diversity in the properties of the both motor neurons and muscle fibers, the activation of a motor unit population proceeds in an orderly sequence from small to large and the discharge pattern of a motor neuron is matched to the mechanical properties of its muscle fibers.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-04-14
Language: en
Type: other
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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