Twitch interpolation in human muscles: mechanisms and implications for measurement of voluntary activation

An electrical stimulus delivered to a muscle nerve during a maximal voluntary contraction usually produces a twitchlike increment in force. The amplitude of this "interpolated twitch" is widely used to measure voluntary "activation" of muscles. In the present study, a computer model of the human adductor pollicis motoneuron pool was used to investigate factors that affect the interpolated twitch. Antidromic occlusion of naturally occurring orthodromic potentials was modeled, but reflex effects of the stimulus were not. In simulations, antidromic collisions occurred with probabilities of between approximately 16% (in early recruited motoneurons) and nearly 100% (in late recruited motoneurons). The model closely predicted experimental data on the amplitude and time course of the rising phase of interpolated twitches over the full range of voluntary forces, except that the amplitude of interpolated twitches was slightly overestimated at intermediate contraction intensities. Small interpolated twitches (4.7% of the resting twitch) were evident in simulated maximal voluntary contractions, but were nearly completely occluded when mean peak firing rate was increased to approximately 60 Hz. Simulated interpolated twitches did not show the marked force drop that follows the peak of the twitch, and when antidromic collisions were excluded from the model interpolated twitch amplitude was slightly increased and time-to-peak force was prolonged. These findings suggest that both antidromic and reflex effects reduce the amplitude of the interpolated twitch and contribute to the force drop that follows the twitch. The amplitude of the interpolated twitch was related to "excitation" of the motoneuron pool in a nonlinear way, so that at near-maximal contraction intensities (>90% maximal voluntary force) increases in excitation produced only small changes in interpolated twitch amplitude. Thus twitch interpolation may not provide a sensitive measure of motoneuronal excitation at near-maximal forces. Increases in the amplitude of interpolated twitches such as have been observed in fatigue and various pathologies may reflect large reductions in excitation of the motoneuron pool.