Effects of stimulation frequencies and patterns on performance of repetitive, nonisometric tasks

The purpose of this paper was to determine the effects of stimulation pattern and frequency on repetitive human knee movements. Quadriceps femoris muscles were stimulated against a load equal to 10% of each subject's maximum voluntary isometric force. The main variable of interest was the number of repetitions in which the leg reached a target angle of 40 degrees of knee extension. Sixteen different trains were tested, including 1) six constant-frequency trains with frequencies ranging from 9 to 100 Hz, 2) five variable-frequency trains with an initial 5-ms triplet and mean frequencies ranging from 11 to 35 Hz, and 3) five doublet-frequency trains, which used doublets (2 pulses with a 5-ms interpulse interval) to replace single pulses, with mean frequencies of 17-57 Hz. Testing was stopped when the subject failed to reach the target angle for three consecutive activations. Results showed that no single pattern was best for all subjects. The 33- and 100-Hz constant-frequency trains, 35-Hz variable-frequency trains, and 27- and 36-Hz doublet frequency trains each met the target the most times for some subjects. The results showed that, under our testing conditions, higher frequency trains were better suited for producing repetitive knee movements than lower frequency trains.