Rat locomotory muscle fiber activity during trotting and galloping

This study was designed to investigate the hypothesis that the trot-gallop transition in running guadrupeds occurs when active cross-sectional areas of muscles or fiber populations within muscles, reach some critical point as animals increase speed within trotting. Rats (Rattus norvegicus) were used as experimental animals, and glycogen depletion was used to estimate patterns or fiber activity. Our results indicate that 1) the contribution to power output by the front limb muscles was less than that of the hind limb muscles during trotting and galloping; 2) the active cross-sectional area of plantaris muscles peaked immediately prior to the transition in gait; 3) the ankle plantar flexor group of muscles as a whole did not attain a maximum active cross-sectional area during fast trotting; and 4) no major discontinuities in whole muscle or fiber type glycogen depletion rates occurred across the gait change. Although these findings do not prove the hypothesis, they support the concept that the trop-gallop transition follows the attainment of peak active muscle cross-sectional areas as animals increase trotting speed.